CWI First-Class Championship…

A mesmerising spell from Veersammy Permaul during which he captured his 650th First-Class wicket and registered his 34th 5-for spearheaded Guyana Harpy Eagles (GHE) to first innings points in their rain-affected third-round day/night CWI First-Class Championship against West Indies Academy last night at Providence.
The 35-year-old Berbican grabbed 6-75 and when he dismissed fellow Guyanese Mavindra Dindyal he took his First-Class wicket tally to 650.
The left-arm spinner has 31 wickets from nine Tests since making his First-Class debut against the Windwards in Grenada in 2007.

Permaul got support from his Albion club mate Gudakesh Motie (2-63) and fellow Berbican Nial Smith (2-57) as the Academy fell for 249 replying to Guyana’s 253 after losing their last three with the score on 249.
Joshua Bishop reached the boundary seven times and cleared it once in his 47-ball 54 and Revaldo Clarke stroked seven boundaries in his 81-ball 50.
Akeem Auguste (43) and Dindyal (32) were the other main contributors for the Academy.

Guyana in their second innings slumped 44-4 while Kemol Savory was forced to retire hurt for seven after being hit on his left shoulder as he ducked into a bouncer from Johann Layne.
Raymond Perez was bowled with the first ball of the innings by Blades while Matthew Nandu (0) was caught behind off Layne who removed Kevlon Anderson (4) as Guyana slumped to 15-3 in the fourth over.

Kevin Sinclair hit four fours in 24 before he tried to Revaldo Clarke over the top and caught a mid-off.
Skipper Tevin Imlach (7) and Renaldo Ali-Mohammed (1) were the not-out batters when the captains agreed to call off the contest at 7:35 PM.
Earlier, the Academy resumed the final day in glorious sunshine on 123-4 and Clarke soon reached his second first-class fifty.

With the score on 141, Smith produced a quick short ball which ‘got big on him’ and the Umpire gave him caught down the leg-side, a decision the Bajan batter was not too pleased with.
His overnight partner 20-year-old Dindyal swept Motie for four while Joshua Bishop reversed swept Sinclair for an important boundary.
Bishop soon reached his fifty but with the score on 201, Motie got one to turn enough to take the edge of Bishop’s bat for Wicket-Keeper Imlach to hold the catch as the fourth batter in the match failed to convert a fifty into a century.

Zishan Motara joined Dindyal who used his feet to hit Permaul over mid-on and lapped him to fine-leg for boundaries to break the shackles after his ultra-cautious start.
However, with first innings points just 27 runs away, Dindyal swept Permaul to Thaddius Lovell on the square-leg boundary to give the 35-year-old from Albion his 650th first-class scalp and 572nd for Guyana.

With a score of 227-7, Layne joined Motara with their team to first-inning points within five runs of overhauling Guyana.
Layne (12) was bowled by Permaul at 249-8 to register his five-wicket haul before removing McKenny Clarke (0) without addition to the score.
Motie bowled Motara (22) as the Academy lost their last three wickets for no runs as the Harpy Eagles clawed their way to first innings points.

The rain resulted in Guyana being unable to start their second innings until 6:50 PM and was called off after eight overs.
Guyana who beat Barbados Pride and CCC in their first two games, face Jamaica at Sabina Park in Jamaica on March 5 while the Academy will battle with T&T in Antigua after a two-week break.