GCB’s Jaguars three-day League…

Oct 09, 2016, Sports, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....rs-three-day-league/

Shepherd (8-49) blows away Essequibians on truncated day

-Despite fifties from Paul & Ricardo Adams

By Sean Devers

On a truncated second day which was stopped due to rain at 13:41hrs at Tuschen yesterday, West Demerara’s Romario Shepherd staked a strong claim for a First-Class call-up by ripping apart the Essequibo batting with an incisive spell of quality fast bowling for a career best 8-49 in the final round of the GCB Jaguars three-day Franchise League game. Shepherd has 34 scalps and is only behind Eon Hooper (38) and Gajanand Suknanan (36).
Essequibo began the day replying to West Demerara’s 346 and despite from Kemo Paul (51) and home boy Ricardo Adams (45) were bowled out for 134 after losing their last six wickets for just 34 runs on a track with good ‘carry’ and one of the best outfields in the League.
Left-arm swing bowler Bajan Raymond Reifer (2-68) supported the 21-year-old Shepherd for West Demerara, who opted not to enforce the follow-on and extended their overall lead to 332 by reaching 120-2 when the rains came. Tagenarine Chanderpaul, the first batsman to reach 600 runs, was unbeaten on 60 to follow-up his first innings 52.
At the end of day one, Paul was leading an Essequibo fight back with a pugnacious undefeated 47 with his team on 83-3 from 15.1 overs but he did not last long.
Paul, one of two Essequibians with a century in the League, posted his fifty from 39 balls before edging Shepherd to the Keeper in the day’s fourth over, while Royan Fredericks was taken at slip for a first ball duck to leave Shepherd on a hat-trick and the score on 100-5 to trigger the collapse.
While Shepherd, who ran in and bowled with pace, and the experienced Reifer operated in tandem with lively pace and good control, it was a combination of quality bowling and senseless batting that orchestrated Essequibo’s demise.
Ricardo Adams drove Reifer deliberately over mid-off for four before edging a mighty drive which flew to the third man boundary.
Shepherd peppered Looknauth Chinkoo (2) with a barge of short balls which had him bobbing and weaving before Adams latched on to Reifer and stroked him majestically through cover for four.
In a slight drizzle, Chinkoo tried an irresponsible hook at Shepherd, who had 3-37 in his lone 50-over game for Guyana and lobbed a catch to square-leg when Chinkoo would have been better served ducking out of the way and supporting Adams.
A nasty bouncer crashed into Adams’ helmet when Shepherd beat him for pace and miscued pull landed over the Keeper head for six.
But Shepherd won the war when Adams pulled a bouncer to deep square-leg to finish off the innings at 10:48hrs after Reifer had removed Kevin Gordon (1) and Neiland Cadogan (0) in quick succession.
West Dem took three bowling points for bowling out Essequibo while they took another point by being the first team to take all 10 wickets with pace to claim a lead of 212.
West Demerara lost Chabiraj Ramcharran for a duck when he steered Paul to point with six runs on the board.
With some uplifting ‘Bob Marley’ music emanating from a house just beyond the Northern boundary, Chanderpaul who got going with a robust straight drive off Cadogan which reached the boundary like a scud missile, pulled Paul for dismissive back-to-back fours as conditions became overcast.
Chanderpaul hooked Cadogan for four and Esau leaned into Paul and caressed him to the cover boundary to bring up the 50 from 6.4 overs. Chanderpaul pounced on Cadogan like a cat upon a mouse and deposited him for six to reach 600 runs.
Chanderpaul and Sarfraz Esau, who played some lovely shots, took the score to 71-1 by Lunch but just after the interval, Esau, after evading a perfectly lined bouncer from Paul, was trapped LBW by Anthony Adams for 25 at 81-2.
Kemol Savory was with Chanderpaul, who would be looking to join Jonathon Foo (580 runs), Bhaskar Yadram and Assad Fudadin (only batsman to two hundreds in same match) as the batsmen with two tons in the League when play is scheduled to commence at 09:30hrs today.
Meanwhile, at Enterprise, East Coast resumed on 34-0 were dismissed for 217 with captain Kamesh Yadram making an unbeaten 104. He struck 10 fours and 3 sixes, while his younger brother Bhaskar Yadram supported with 33. Paul Wintz (23), Keon Roberts (22) and Ameer Khan (20) were the other major scores. Sherfane Rutherford (4-39), Stephen Harris (2-58) and Totaram Bishun 2-62 were the main wicket takers for East Bank who were 113-5, chasing 178 for an outright victory. Tevin Imlach is on 52 not out.