UNBEATEN fifties from Montcin Hodge and Kieran Powell handed Leewards Island Hurricanes the driver’s keys as they maintained a stranglehold over the Guyana Harpy Eagles following the end of action on day one at Port of Spain.
Guyana stumbled during their first outing with the bat, being kept to a below-average 1st innings total of 116 in 34.3 overs. Anthony Bramble (38) and Keemo Paul (20) were the only notable scorers amidst a dismal batting exhibition, which ended shortly after lunch.
It was a clinical effort by the Leeward Islands bowlers, namely left-arm medium pacer Colin Archibald Jr (3-29) and left-arm spinner Daniel Doram who starred with 3-16, spearheading the assault on Guyana.
Stumps saw Leewards finish on day 1, solidly placed on 126-0 after 46 overs. The half-centurions, Hodge 51 with 5 fours and Powell 55 with seven boundaries, did the lion’s share of the work and will resume today.
During the chase Hodge and Powell were seemingly in no rush as they tempered their approach to the Leewards’ first innings. Some stylish strokes from both openers soon took their franchise to 50 after the tea break, minus any hiccups.
What started out as a confident yet cautious Hurricanes’ half-century, soon blossomed into a more aggressive, even more poised century-partnership between the two openers and which lent further weight to their team’s chase.
With just a few overs left in the day’s play, Powell reached his fifty with a single off Gudakesh Motie to a welcome cheer, while a few overs later, same bowler, Hodge picked up 3 runs which took him to his personal milestone.
With seven overs remaining in the day’s play, umpires eventually took the call to stop play due to poor light, making day 2 highly interesting for the bowling team.
Guyana collapse after batting first
The Eagles were completely out of their batting element, being reduced to 89 for 7 when the lunch interval came,, thanks to some clinical trials by the Hurricane seamers, particularly Alzarri Joseph and Archibald.
The horrid morning session started when Guyana openers Tagenarine Chanderpaul (5) and Chandrapaul Hemraj (9) struggled to get going despite both batsmen finding the ropes a few times.
When Hemraj was removed by Jeremiah Louis, out caught, Guyana were 16 for 1 and losing their first wicket immediately turned things on the head for the Eagles.
Things slid further down the ditch when left-hander Shimron Hetmyer (0), managed to obstruct the field by handling the ball and was given out first delivery, leaving the score 16 for 2.
Captain Leon Johnson hung around for 12 deliveries before a bustling Joseph removed him by virtue of a catch. Johnson’s departure was soon followed by the wicket of another left-hander, Vishaul Singh, who made just 8 before succumbing to Archibald.
Reeling from their string of dismissals, the Eagles found a bit of resolve in wicketkeeper Bramble, who was the complete opposite to his teammates.
Bramble immediately shifted gears and smashed a flurry of boundaries and looked well set for a blistering half-century, which inevitably wasn’t to be.
Despite going for almost a run-a-ball, Bramble unfortunately found the waiting hands of all-rounder Rakeem Cornwall in the slips, off some excellent bowling from Archibald, who snagged two in his opening spell.
Vice-captain Paul scored 20 off 17 balls with 2 fours before giving Cornwall another catch, this time giving Doram his first scalp.
With their entire premier batting line back in the pavilion, it was the Berbicians Clinton Pestano (14) and Veerasammy Permaul who steadied the craft until lunch.
When play resumed, the Eagles’ afternoon session was soon ruined when Doram bagged both Pestano and an incoming Gudakesh Motie (4), who were both caught by Terrance Ward, leaving Niall Smith stranded yet to come off the mark.
