Fast bowler Ronsford Beaton turned in a Man-of-the-Match performance and the batsmen rose to the occasion to hand Guyana Jaguars their second win of the Super50 competition on Monday, a five-run win under the Duckworth/Lewis method.
In a rain-affected contest reduced to 45 overs per side, ICC Americas put up a decent 220-7 on a good batting track, before the Jaguars responded with 212-4 off 43.3 overs when bad light brought a premature end to the game. At that point, the Jaguars were five runs ahead of the Duckworth/Lewis calculations.
Beaton, 24, starred with the ball for the Jaguars, snaring career-best figures of 4-28 off nine overs. ICC Americas’ batting was led by skipper Nitish Kumar, who struck three fours and three sixes in a 73-ball 66, while Timroy Allen made 37 and Srimantha Wijeyeratne scored 27.
Jaguars then lost two early wickets when opener Rajendra Chandrika (2) and Raymon Reifer (6) were dismissed with just 29 runs on the board. However, skipper Leon Johnson and opener Assad Fudadin struck half-centuries in a century partnership to repair the damage.
The pair added 131 for the third wicket, with Johnson cracking 78 (84 balls, 9x4s, 1×6), his second fifty of the tournament. Fellow left-hander Fudadin made 54 (98 balls, 4x4s).
All-rounder Christopher Barnwell and ace batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul completed the job with an unbroken 50-run partnership for the fifth wicket, with Barnwell ending on 29 and Chanderpaul 22.
The Jaguars, with two wins and two defeats so far, will next play the Combined Campuses and Colleges Marooners on Friday at Kensington Oval in a day/night game starting at 13:30h.
