NORTH SOUND, Antigua, CMC – Denesh Ramdin stroked his sixth first-class hundred before Trinidad & Tobago’s bowlers fortified their side’s position against Guyana in the WICB Regional First-Class championship yesterday.
Ramdin regained the form that deserted him on the West Indies’ recent trip to Australia to hit the top score of an undefeated 109 that propelled T&T to 416 all out in their first innings.
Amit Jaggernauth then snared two wickets for 39 runs from 12 overs to tighten T&T’s grip and leave Guyana wobbling on 171 for four at the close on the second day of the day/night second round match at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground.
Ramdin became the second T&T batsman to use the occasion of the inaugural floodlit match featuring the pink ball to hit a hundred after opener Lendl Simmons struck nine boundaries from 222 balls in 4-¾ hours.
Yesterday’s effort was Ramdin’s fourth hundred for T&T and second against Guyana.
He offered two chances. On the first day he was missed by the ‘keeper on 39, and yesterday, he was dropped at 67 in the covers.
Ramdin reached his century with a crisp off-drive which sped to the boundary and celebrated by leaping high into the air.
The key stage of the game was his 87-run eighth-wicket partnership with Dave Mohammed, who made a valuable 37 including five boundaries in two hours — most of them from lusty blows over the top.
After Mohammed fell on the stroke of lunch, Ramdin increased the tempo and scored freely to carry T&T over the 400-run threshold.
In Guyana’s innings, young opener Rajendra Chandrika, playing his first first-class match after earning a call-up as a replacement for the injured Ramnaresh Sarwan, played very well for 65.
He tried to attack only when the bowlers offered width or when the ball was thrown up. One classic stroke was a towering six off slow bowler Imran Khan, as he used his feet and lifted the ball into the stands.
He brought up his half century with a savage slog/sweep for four off Jaggernauth, and in the off-spinner’s next over, he played the stroke of the day – a classic cover drive which sped to the cover boundary.
His bid for a debut century was cut short however, as the more experienced T&T tightened the screws.
T&T captain Daren Ganga made several changes to his field and instructed his bowler to stick to one side of the wicket. The move worked as the runs dried up, and Chandrika, in trying to score, got a tickle on a flat, quick delivery from Khan and keeper Ramdin pocketed the offering.
After Sewnarine Chatter-goon, leading Guyana in the injured Sarwan’s absence, fell for just three – dragging on to Rayad Emrit – Chandrika and Dowlin added 86 for the second wicket.
Dowlin was caught at short-leg off Jaggernauth for 31, and Assad Fudadin made 11 before he succumbed to the pressure and skied a catch to mid-off, leaving Guyana on 133 for four.
It then required steady batting from Deonarine and Vishal Singh to take them to bed with little bother in an unfinished stand of 34 for the fifth wicket.
