Guyanese dump Windwards for ‘semi’ spot

ALBION: Guyana pulled off a final-hour win against the Windward Islands yesterday, bringing their points tally to a second-place 48 and ensuring qualification for one of four semi-final spots in the Carib Beer International Shield regional cricket tournament.

SCORES: Guyana 412 and 161/5 dec vs Windward Islands 307 and 193.

Resuming at 27 with out loss, Guyana quickly lost the wickets of Azeemul Haniff, Siewnarine Chattergoon and Andre Percival with less than 70 runs on the board. But the team managed to reached 161 for five on the stroke of lunch from a 71-run sixth-wicket partnership between Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Travis Dowlin. The solid middle order partnership allowed the home team to declare their innings closed, setting the visitors a total of 267 to win in 60 overs. But the Windwards faltered for 193 as they chased the tally in an attempt to qualify for a semi-final place. Looking for quick runs, Chanderpaul was stumped by wicketkeeper Junior Murray on 47 on the last ball before lunch, leading to the Guyana declaration. Dowlin was unbeaten on 25.

The win means that Guyana, last year’s Shield champions, will host one of the semi-final matches because they placed second in the league stage of the tournament. The other teams to qualify for the semi-finals so far are Barbados and Jamaica, with the final place being a toss up between India “A” and Trinidad and Tobago. The Indians have an additional match against last-place West Indies “B.” The semi-final round, originally scheduled to begin Friday, was postponed until March 28 to allow India “A,” who arrived late to the tournament, a chance to qualify. An outright win could just push them ahead of Trinidad. The start of the final was pushed back until April 4.