Barnwell stars with bat in drawn encounter

In the high-profile club match  which saw both sides boasting a number of former and current national, junior Guyana cricketers, the home team won the toss and elected to bat first on  the flat surface and heavily grassed outfield.

Christopher Barnwell

DCC initially slumped to 60/4, before Barnwell, 137, (4×4, 15×6) and Guyana wicket-keeper Derwin Christian 103 (10×6, 5×4) revived the innings with aggressive centuries, sharing in a 199-run, fifth-wicket partnership as the Queenstown side was dismissed for  290 in  50 overs.

Leon Johnson bowling a mixture of off-breaks and leg-spinners, leg-spinner Ricardo Jadunath and Guyana Under-19 left-arm spinner Raj Nanan, were the principal wicket-takers for GCC with figures of 3/26, 2/56 and 2/62 respectively. When stumps was drawn on day one, GCC, in reply, were 110/4.

They resumed yesterday’s second day needing a further 180 runs to clinch first innings points but  eventually fell 10 runs short being dismissed for 280 in 70 overs. The main scorers were Jeetendra Sookdeo 71 (4×4) and Winston Forrester 69 (7×6). This duo also shared in a 121-run fifth wicket partnership.

Wasim Haslim (41) and wicket-keeper Treon Forde (31) were the other major contributors.

Derwin Christian

Left-arm wrist spinner Totaram Bishun, fresh off some impressive bowling for Georgetown Pitbulls in the just concluded national Twenty20 competition, claimed figures of 7/81 in 29 overs.

With a slender first innings advantage, DCC in their second innings, finished on 260/6 in 44 overs with Barnwell 91 not out (2×4, 9×6) and Jamal Hinckson 81 (4×4, 5×6) the prominent scorers.

Johnson again had the best bowling figures, claiming 2/97 from his 16 overs.

The game finished in slightly exciting fashion as Barnwell, hitting sixes out of the small venue at will all afternoon, ended needing 15 runs of the final over of the game, bowled by Nanan to score back-to-back centuries.

But Nanan kept his cool, bowling a tight line into to pads to restrict Barnwell from achieving that milestone.