NORTH SOUND, Antigua (CMC) – Guyana Jaguars brushed aside USA Cricket by seven wickets here yesterday, to halt their two-game losing streak in the Regional Super50.
Entering the Group B contest on the heels of defeats to Jamaica Scorpions and English county Kent, Jaguars returned to their winning ways by easily chasing down a modest 145 to win with almost 20 overs to spare.
Opener Chandrapaul Hemraj top-scored with an entertaining 64 off 59 deliveries, while veteran left-hander Shiv Chanderpaul contributed 39.
Jaguars stumbled at the start when they lost young West Indies left-hander Shimron Hetmyer cheaply, for five, to a catch at the wicket off left-arm seamer Saurabh Netravalkar in the second over, with the score on five.
However, Hemraj and Chanderpaul combined in a second-wicket stand of 89, to put Jaguars within sight of victory.
The left-handed Hemraj, with just 49 runs from five previous innings, finally found his touch in an innings laced with six fours and four sixes.
Chanderpaul, meanwhile, was more measured in a knock that required 62 balls and included four fours and a six.
Both batsmen fell 20 runs and 29 deliveries apart, as Jaguars slipped to 114 for three at the half-way stage of the innings.
But with victory virtually assured, captain Leon Johnson (19 not out) and veteran all-rounder Chris Barnwell (19 not out) combined in a easy paced unbroken 36-run, fourth-wicket partnership to put their side over the line.
Barnwell belted a pair of sixes in his 16-ball cameo, the last of which provided the winning runs.
Earlier, right-handed opener Jaskaran Malhotra top-scored with 80 but was without support as USA, sent in at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground, were bundled out for 144 in the 44th over.
Malhotra faced 116 balls and counted six fours and a six but was one of only three batsmen in double figures and the only one to pass 20.
He put on 39 for the second wicket with former Windies batsman Xavier Marshall (19) and after five wickets perished for 19 runs, added a further 40 for the seventh wicket with Adil Bhatti (19).
But the innings could not survive Barnwell’s spell of four for 35 or fellow seamer Keemo Paul’s two for 25, and it folded meekly leaving Jaguars with an easy quest for points.
