Leewards qualify for Challenge final

ANNA REGINA: The Leeward Islands will face Jamaica in the final of the Carib Beer Series after earning a draw against Guyana on the final day of their 10th round Carib Beer Series regional cricket match yesterday. By mutual agreement of the two captains, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Sylvester Joseph, the tenth round match at Hampton Court was ended at 3.35 pm when an outright result seemed unlikely and not worth pursuing.

Persistent rain before and during the tea interval caused a delay in the resumption of the final session with a wet outfield. Guyana’s chances of forcing an outright win, which they needed to leap ahead of the Leewards in the points standings, were virtually extinguished and having declared their second innings on 131 for three at tea they agreed to abandon the fixture. On the back of “Man-of-the-Match” Chanderpaul’s massive 194, Guyana made 448 in the first innings and the Leewards responded with 378.

The home team, having won first innings and with a lead of 65, then laboured to 131 from 33 overs while strangely not opting to use their premier batsmen —  Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan —  and the known big hitter Mahendra Nagamootoo, when quick runs seemed the sensible option if they would have built a challenging total for the Leewards to pursue. When the match ended, there was a minimum of 36 overs available and the Leewards would have needed to get 199 to win. It was unlikely that they would have gone after the runs and getting ten wickets in one session seemed too tall an order for Guyana.