By Brij Parasnath

BRILLIANT batting by talented all-rounder Christopher Barnwell, Raymon Reifer and Chandrapaul Hemraj allowed the Guyana Jaguars to celebrate a convincing seven-wicket victory over Canada in their Cricket West Indies (CWI) Super50 day-night match at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy (BLCA), Toruba, South Trinidad last evening.

In his 45^th Super50 match, Barnwell and Reifer displayed wonderful chemistry and understanding of the situation after there was a minor hiccup when the Jaguars lost three wickets for an addition of two runs and were 51 for 3 after 7.3 overs. They displayed great maturity and took the sting out of the Canadians attack and kept alive their team’s chances of making the semi-finals in Barbados.

The top two teams from each Group will battle for honours in the semis. Trinidad and Tobago Red Force currently heads Group A with three consecutive wins while the Guyana Jaguars are in second spot and is well-poised to finish in the top two.

Barnwell registered his career best and missed the coveted century-mark by one run  to finish unbeaten on 99 when they celebrated a rousing seven-wicket win. The pugnacious right-hander smashed four sixes and seven fours off 77 balls while Reifer was also unbeaten on 50 that contained one six and three fours off 57 balls as they posted 153 for their match-winning fourth wicket partnership. Guyana replied with 204 for three wickets off 29.4 overs after Canada scored 202 for 9 in 47 overs.

Demerara Cricket Club’s all-rounder Christopher Barnwell followed his unbeaten 61 (3x6s and 1×4 off 71 balls) against the West Indies B with another brilliant performance that restored respectability to the Jaguars team.

He found an equally determined partner in left-handed Reifer, the Barbadian-born franchise player; and together with sensible batsmanship and astute running between the wickets eased all tension and pressure to thwart the efforts of the Canadians.

The Jaguars were off to a flyer through the exciting strokeplay of Hemraj who stroked six consecutive fours in one over from Dilon Heliger’s second over and third of the Jaguars’ innings. The first ball was a wide and then Hemraj exploded with brilliant strokes that created a feeling that the match will finish quickly.

However, the fortunes changed quickly as his fellow opener Trevon Griffith was bowled by leftarm medium pacer Romesh Do Eranga with the score at 49 for 1 after 5.4 overs. Skipper Leon Johnson appeared at his usual number three position but he was castled by rightarm seamer Sukhdeep Brar when he attempted an ill-advised pull stroke that he missed completely and  was struck plumb infront of the stumps.

Johnson faced seven deliveries and made only a single and the total was 51 for 2 after 6.6 overs. Further tremors for Guyana Jaguars as Hemraj mis-timed an attempted hook stroke off Don Eranga and top-edged the ball to at the leg gully position where Brar held on to the easy offering.

Hemraj, who made an attractive century (103 not with 2x6s and 12x4s off 79 balls) in the previous match against the West Indies B team at the same venue; departed for 33 that included seven fours off 22 balls,.

In his 20^th List A match and paced by a disciplined 88 by India-born Navneet Dhaliwal, Canada posted 202 for 9 in 47 overs after a delayed start and reduced number of overs from the original 50-0vers-a-side encounter.

Dhaliwal stroked three sixes, one each off Raymon Reifer, Sherfane Rutherford and Veerasammy Permaul plus seven fours off 110 balls. He missed his highest List A score of 93 scored against Nepal in their ICC World Cricket League Division 2 match at Windhoek, Netherlands on June 18, 2015 but still chalked up his second score of eighty or more in this year’s tournament.

In that WCL Division 2 clash, Canada had defeated Nepal by 46 runs after they made 257 for 6 and bowled out Nepal for 211. But last evening, Dhaliwal followed up hi 80 against Windwards Volcanoes at the same venue when they made 264 in reply to 337 for 9 (50 overs).

They tasted defeat Dhaliwal along with his Canadian counterparts suffered similar fate against the Guyanese who celebrated their second win in three matches.

Pestano (7-0-30-2), Reifer (6-1-33-2), Ramaal Lewis (9-1-30-2) and Shepherd (8-0-31-1) were the wicket-takers while leftam spinner Permaul (10-0-37-0) and Barnwell (5-0-19-0) were also very effective in stifling quick scoring during the mid-innings battle.