Keemo Paul bowls Guyana to another first-class title

Guyana won the WICB Professional Cricket League Regional 4-Day Tournament with a game in hand, by beating Windward Islands by an innings and 122 runs in Providence. They were winning the first-class trophy for the third consecutive year.

The result was set up by a first-innings rout of Windwards Islands for 95 in 28.1 overs, after they had chosen to bat. Nineteen-year old Guyana fast bowler Keemo Paul took career-best figures of 6 for 28, reducing the visitors to 29 for 6 inside the first ten overs of the match, after his 22-year old new-ball partner Romario Shepherd has dismissed the openers in the first and third over. Sunil Ambris and Shane Shillingford were the only Windward batsmen to make it past 15, and no one got to 30.

By the end of the first day, Guyana has taken a 115-run lead and had eight wickets intact. Their openers Rajendra Chandrika and Assad Fudadin had put on 108 runs in 24.2 overs, when the former was dismissed on 35. Fudadin went on to score his sixth first-class hundred and Guyana went into stumps to 210 for 2.

They slumped on the second morning, sliding to 248 for 7, with quicks Delorn Johnson and Kyle Mayers doing most of the damage. But Paul then played an important role with the bat too. He made 46 in an 85-run stand with Steven Jacobs, who scored 61, and Guyana's last three wickets added 131 runs. They were finally dismissed for 379 in 112 overs, 284 runs ahead.

Windwards began their second innings on the second day and another top-order slump ensured the match would not go beyond the third. Shepherd, Veerasammy Permaul and Gudakesh Moti-Kanhai reduced them to 102 for 5 at stumps, with only the opener Devon Smith battling with an unbeaten 60.

Smith was out early on the third day though, for 61, Paul's first wicket of the innings. The end came quickly thereafter as Paul and Moti-Kanhai, who ended with 4 for 45, dismissed Windward for 162 in 46.1 overs. Paul took 3 for 36, to finish with nine wickets in the match.
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