da dobrowin： The Guyanese national cricket team romped to a comfortable victorythis past Wednesday at the Ronald Webster Park in the Valley, Anguillaover the newcomers of the Cayman Islands in the 2000 Red Stripe Bowl
da betcris： Zach Kenworthy11-Oct-2000The Guyanese national cricket team romped to a comfortable victorythis past Wednesday at the Ronald Webster Park in the Valley, Anguillaover the newcomers of the Cayman Islands in the 2000 Red Stripe Bowl.Guyana, who are one of the firm favourites in the 2000 Red StripeBowl, were graced with the presence of former West Indies’ masterclass batsmen, Carl Hooper, who returned to the Guyana National squadto help bridge the gap between the youngsters and first-class cricket.The Cayman Islands, who won the toss, asked Guyana to bat on atypically hard and fast Anguillian batting track which was once againproduced by ace curator Dale Rogers and his ground-staff crew.However, the Guyana team, initially made hard work of scoring runs asopeners Richardo Mohammed (15) and Azeemul Haniff (40) started slowlyagainst a very disciplined Cayman Island bowling attack that kept to agood line and length and continued to frustrate the young Guyaneseopening pair. However, when Mohamed fell to the bowling of KenuteTulloch, former West Indian one-day batsmen, Keith Semple tookadvantage of the inexperienced Cayman bowling attack and blasted 79from a mere 100 balls with seven blistering boundaries. After Hanifffell, offering a simple catch to mid-on, Semple was then joined byHooper, who played an equally important role as he charged to a quickfire 41 from 43 balls. Both he and Semple communicated well androtated the strike consistently as they were the beneficiaries of somegood luck and some poor Cayman fielding. Both were dropped early intheir innings and a total of 5 catches were put down throughout theinnings.After the fall of Hooper and Semple, however, the Guyanese battingfell away badly as they eventually laboured to a score of 224 for 9from their allotted 50 overs. The Caymnans must have been pleased withtheir bowling as they restricted one of the better batting sides inthe tournament. Off-spinner and former Jamaican bowler, larryCunningham, was the pick of the bowlers as he scalped 4 for 31 from 7overs.In reply, the debutants started well and were at one point 50 for 2from some 14 overs. After some light showers, the score was revisedand the Caymans were to chase 215 from 46 overs. The openers seemed tocope satisfactorily against the pace twins of Colin Stuart and ReonKing. However after Christopher Wight (one of four Wight brothers whomade their regional debut on Wednesday) was dismissed for 23 and LarryCunningham for 22, the Caymans folded inwards and collapsed for a mere75 for 9 from just 29.5 overs. Charles Greaves was unable to bat as heinjured his leg earlier in the day whilst diving to stop a ball atmid-off. West Indian leg-spinner, Mahendra Nagamootoo was the leadingwicket taker with his career best regional one-day figures of 5 for 13from his full ten overs.It was a convincing victory for the Guyanese as they hope to storm tothe next round in Jamaica later this month and once again stake theirclaim as ‘regional beaters’. With Carl Hooper back in the fold Guyanadefinitely have the resources to produce a winning streak. Hooperseems refreshed and there definitely appears to be a renewed spiritwithin himself as after the match he was openly speaking to manycricket fans with his wife and his young son, Carl Junior who himselfseemed to be very pleased with his fathers success.
