Gudakesh Motie produced a magical spell of 4-53 which played an integral part as the Leon Johnson XI beat the Robin Bacchus’s XI by nine runs with a day to spare as the final Guyana Jaguars 4-day practice match concluded at the Providence yesterday.
Motie bowled with variation and control, confusing his victims as Bacchus XI was again knocked over for a low score.
The 169 they managed in their second innings allowed them a lead of a meagre 33 runs thanks to an aggressive 60 from Barbadian Javon Searles and Seven Sankar (34).
All-rounders Chris Barnwell and Raymon Reifer picked up two good
wickets in supporting the left-arm spinner.
Johnson’s second batting innings was a simple task as they cruised to 34-1 with Assad Fudadin (12 not out), Shimron Hetmyer (11) and the captain not out on seven.
Raun Johnson got the only wicket of Hetmyer who was out LBW.
After knocking over the Bacchus XI for 141 runs in the first innings, Johnson’s men were bowled out for a first innings total of 277 but extended the lead to 136 runs, via knocks from Shiv Chanderpaul (60), openers Fudadin (47) and Shimron Hetmyer (43), Vishaul Singh (34) while some useful contributions from Barnwell (27), Raymon Reifer (21) and wicket-keeper Anthony Bramble (19*), aid their team’s total.
Guyana’s premier battery of quicks; Ronsford Beaton (3-41), Johnson (2-31), Paul Wintz (2-35) operated well during their spells and would have been reasonably satisfied with their progress in the first innings for the Bacchus XI.
Batting a second time, Reifer was spot on with his angles, knocking back the stumps of the opposition skipper for four runs but not before Tagenarine Chanderpaul (05), was pinned leg before wicket for another low score.
Barnwell then had his Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) teammate Tevin Imlach trapped LBW for 12 while Motie was unplayable, causing confusion as he bagged the wickets of Kandasammy Surujnarine (15) who was caught by Jacobs and century maker from the first match Kevon Boodie who was stumped without scoring.
Searles smashed three fours and a six while Kemo Paul (15) struck one as their team went into the tea interval with the score 65-5. When the afternoon session restarted, Motie continued his magic show with the ball and soon enough removed Paul who was also stumped after being foxed by a spinning delivery.
Barnwell rejoined the action and again bagged another DCC teammate wicket when he knocked over Kemol Savory for (02) while Motie got his fourth wicket when Dexter Solomon (09) was caught by Fudadin at deep cover, leaving the score 95-8.
Searles was unfazed by losing partners at such a fast pace as he continued to strike the ball firmly, taking a special liking to Joseph who he cracked for a number of boundaries as he crept into the 40’s, also taking his team’s score past the 100-run mark.
Sankar and Searles launched a brief counter-attack while the later was given a pair of lives when he was dropped in the outfield and at slip as he crept closer to 50. Jacobs had Sankar bowled eventually but the Barbados all-rounder reached his half-century with a single and was run out 10 runs later by Johnson, wrapping up the innings with Wintz unbeaten on 2.
When the session began with their innings on 53 and 7 respectively, Chanderpaul and Reifer were not allowed to flourish on the morning of the third day as Boodie held onto two good catches off the bowling of Adams who bagged the veteran and the Barbadian all-rounder who fell to the speedster Johnson. Barnwell, Steven Jacobs (00) whose woes continued with the bat and West Indies U-19 Akshaya Persaud (07) fell to the pace of Beaton while Bramble was left standing alone.
