By Calvin Roberts
At Lester Vaughan Secondary School Ground
Cane Garden, St. Thomas
Compliments of Smalta, Cummings Electrical, Lifetime Realty, P&P Insurance, Cellular Plus and Hanes (Guyana) Limited
A maiden century from Seon Hetmyer (105) ensured Guyana drew their final preliminary round match against Trinidad and Tobago of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB)/TCL-sponsored 2008 Under-19 tournament at the Lester Vaughan Secondary School ground yesterday.
Despite the draw, Guyana still lost the three day title to Barbados who held on for a draw in their game against Jamaica at the Cable and Wireless/BET ground to finish the competition on 37 points.
Guyana, who started the title defence with back-to-back victories in the first two matches, ended the tournament on 34 points after dropping first innings points in their final two games.
Scores: Guyana 227 and 289-8 Trinidad 336-9 declared.
Guyana started the day needing to wipe off a deficit of 109 runs following Trinidad and Tobago’s declaration on their overnight score of 336-9 and got off to a sound start with opener Royan Fredericks (31) and Trevon Griffith (22) taking the attack to the Twin Island Republic fast bowlers in a first wicket partnership of 57, their highest partnership of the series.
Fredericks eventually edged a short delivery through to wicketkeeper Rickson Maniram after making 31 made off 29 deliveries whilst with five fours and one five.
Griffith followed Fredericks in the next over caught at point by Cooper off Omeshwar Ramoutar for 22 made off with 20 balls while Dillon Heyliger, who got off the mark with a pugnacious pull over long-on off the final delivery of the over was soon caught by Mitchell off Cooper as Guyana lost three wickets in the space of 12 runs.
At 69-3, Guyana was still 40 runs away from making the Trinidadians bat a second time but Hetymyer and Jonathan Foo accomplished that task with a partnership of 89 for the fourth wicket.
They took the score to 113-3 at lunch playing positive against all the Trinidad bowlers especially brothers Yannick and Kjorn Ottley who were operating in tandem at one stage.
Foo was on 24 and Hetmyer 17.
The pair continued to bat solidly and posted the Guyana 150 when Foo drove Cooper who had replaced Dogan exquisitely through the covers for four in the 38th over.
However, Cooper was to deny Foo his first half century wearing national colours when he had the batsman caught behind by wicketkeeper Maniram for 48 as the batsman attempted to run a delivery down to third man.
He faced 85 balls and struck five fours and one six in 106 minutes. The 89-run fourth wicket stand was the highest partnership of any wicket by the Guyanese in this year’s tournament.
Hetmyer duly brought up his first 50 in this year’s competition by pushing Yannick Ottley to mid on. He faced 117 balls and struck six fours whilst batting for 157 minutes.
Debutant Royston Alkins at the other end was providing worthy support and the pair put together a partnership of 70 runs for the fifth wicket.
The two took the score to 217-4 at team with Hetymyer who had struck Yannick Ottley over long-on for six moving to 72 while Alkins was on 21.
Upon resumption, Alkins struck Kjorn Ottley over long on for six but attempting a similar stroke off Ramoutar picked out Mitchell at mid on and departed for 30.
He faced 74 balls and struck four fours and one six.
Meanwhile, Hetmyer was inching closer to his maiden century with two successive drives on either side of the wicket off Ramoutar that went for boundaries and took his tally to 82.
His new partner wicketkeeper, Anthony Bramble, opened his account in fine style with a flick through midwicket off Yannick Ottley.
However his attempted cut shot off the same bowler was duly pouched by wicket-keeper Maniram and he departed for six.
Guyana lost Herman Latcha who was run out for five and suddenly from the comfortable position of 228-5 they had slipped to 255-7.
All this time, Hetmyer was on 90 as the final hour of the day’s play approached he was joined by his skipper Eugene La Fleur.
Hetmyer drove Yannick Ottley through mid-on for four to move to 98 and became Guyana’s lone centurion in this year’s tournament when he was dropped by Dogan who was stationed at cover off the bowling of Kjorn Ottley from the 216th delivery he faced.
He struck 10 fours and one six whilst batting for 279 minutes. He was finally dismissed after steering Ramoutar to third man for four before guiding a delivery from the same bowler into the waiting hands of Adrian Barath at first slip.
His contribution to his team’s total of 277-8 was 105 made from 216 balls and was decorated with 11 fours and one six and he batted for 284 minutes.
There were the usual fireworks towards the end with La Fleur hitting Ottley down through mid-off for four while Keon Joseph pulled Ramoutar over mid-wicket for four before both Barath and La Fleur decided to call it a day at 4:41pm after seven of the mandatory 15 overs had been bowled.
La Fleur on eight and Joseph on seven were the not out batsmen for Guyana.
Cooper with 3-47 and Ramoutar 3-52 proved to be the most successful bowlers for Trinidad and Tobago who ended the tournament in third position on 30 points.
