By Brij Parasnath

DESPITE a defiant half-century by their national Under-17 captain Bhaskar Yadram, who is undefeated on 67 in their second innings, the Guyana national Under-19 team face the embarrassment of being beaten by their Trinidadian counterparts in their third round WICB 2-innings competition at the Sion Hill playing field in St Vincent & the Grenadines.Trinidad and Tobago spin-twins Jonathan Bootan, with a career-best of 7 for 23 and Bryan Boodram (3 for 29), combined to demolish the defending champions for 85 (44.4 overs) in their first innings and placed their team in position to force an outright victory today.
At the close of play on the second day yesterday, Guyana still needed another 102 runs to clear the 211-run deficit after they were forced to follow-on in their second innings. They reached 102 for the loss of three wickets after 41.4 overs.
Trinidad and Tobago’s first innings closed at 296 in 109.3 overs mainly through a brilliant innings from West Indies Youth player Kirstan Kallicharan who produced another inspirational knock that pushed Trinidad and Tobago Under-19s to 289 for the loss of nine wickets in 107 overs on the first day (Thursday).
Kallicharan played a captain’s knock and led by example as he batted resolutely and revived his team’s fortunes only to fall short of his second hundred of the three-match round-robin series. The 16-year-old right-hander stroked ten fours off 226 balls before he was caught by Raymond Perez for 91 off the bowling of Malcolm Hubbard with the score at 170 for 5 after 76.3 overs.
Kallicharan had joined Cephas Cooper after openers Keagan Simmons (1 off 3 balls) and Dejourn Charles (9 off 13 balls) were dismissed for 6 (1.2 overs) and 14 (4.3 overs).
With Cooper, who made 17 (2×4 off 33 balls), Kallicharan posted 26 for the third wicket and then added a further 68 with vice-captain Saiba Batoosingh (16 off 86 balls) and 49 with Bryan Boodram 19 (1×4 off 82 balls) for the fourth and fifth wickets respectively.
Kallicharan’s QPCC clubmate Joshua DaSilva took charge of proceedings after the captain departed from centre-stage. He treated the Guyanese bowlers with scant respect especially Sherfane Rutherford, whom he hammered for 18 runs in his return to bowl late in the afternoon.
With two sixes and six fours, DaSilva raced to 60 before he was caught by Hubbard off the bowling of Sylus Tyndall who had dismissed Cooper earlier in his first spell. Jonathan Bootan made 19 while Jabari Mills and Jarlanie Seales contributed 24 and 27 respectively after they forged a 49-run tenth wicket partnership.
Looknauth Chinkoo bore the brunt of the Guyanese bowling and had figures of 37-17-65-2 while Tyndall (7-0-32-2) and Hubbard (14-3-26-2) were the other bowlers who accounted for two wickets each for Guyana.
Travis Persaud (20-1-28-1), Rutherford (10-1-55-1), Ronaldo AliMohammed (5-2-24-1), Joel Sietaram (8-2-20-0), Bhaskar Yadram (5-1-24-0) and Raymond Perez (1-0-4-0) were the other bowlers who were pressed into service with the hope of restricting T&T to a much lower score in their first innings.
For Guyana’s first innings, only Ronaldo Renee 20, Joshua Persaud 17 and Ronaldo AliMohammed 14 reached double figures while Bootan (17.4-6-23-7) and Boodram (18-8-29-3) mystified them and shared all ten wickets.
However, there is a glimmer of hope to salvage some pride as Yadram, promoted to the number three position; battled doggedly and remained unbeaten on 67 after they had lost two early wickets – Renee (8) and Joshua Persaud – both to medium pacer Negus Smith (6-0-18-20) who played in his first match of the series.
Travis Persaud contributed 19 and featured in a fighting 77-run third-wicket stand with Yadram before he succumbed to the wiles of Bootan (6.4-1-11-1) who returned for his second spell.
Today is the final day and while the Trinidadians will be pushing for outright victory, the rest of Guyanese batsmen must produce their best batting form for the series, if they are to salvage some lost pride and boost themselves for the 50-overs round-robin tournament which will follow this series.