DISCOVERY BAY -- Guyana played aggressive, resilient cricket to beat Barbados by 27 runs on the Duckworth/Lewis system in their rain-hit Red Stripe Bowl final at the Kaiser Sports Club here yesterday.
Having made 212 in 50 overs, the Guyanese grabbed three wickets in quick succession to have Barbados struggling at 100-5 when rain tumbled down at 3:40 pm.
When play resumed after an hour, the Barbadians found themselves with a target of 84 off 11 overs to win the game.
On a pitch that was never conducive for batting, Barbados had little chance against a Guyana team that bowled well and fielded like terriers.
Three of the five remaining Barbados wickets fell to runs-outs and they were eventually dismissed for 156, 28 runs short of their target with one over remaining.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who captained Guyana under a cloud, following a disagreement over whether he should have had the job in the first place, was understandably overjoyed.
"I couldn't ask for better," he said at game's end. "I had great support from the team. We had a long discussion in our team meeting last night and we were very focused on what we had to do.
"We knew that once we had 200 runs on the board it was going to be very hard to get with our bowling and with the wicket turning a bit," he said.
Barbados captain, Courtney Browne, said the loss of Ryan Hinds (9) at 92-4 in the 24th over was crucial to the Barbados loss.
"It should have been a cake walk, we should have never lost the fourth wicket. It's basically a case of thinking cricket," he said.
After winning the toss and batting, Guyana ended up with the highest score of the three matches at Kaiser on a pitch that was again untrustworthy with unpredictable bounce and pace.
Importantly, the Guyanese fulfilled one of their pre-match ambitions by not losing a wicket in the first 15 overs and having wickets in hand at the end.
Ryan Ramdass 37 (84 balls, 2 fours and a six), whose place in the team was under threat, posted 45 with the lefthanded Sewnarine Chattergoon (24) before the latter fell to offspinner, Ryan Hurley, in the 18th over with 45 runs on the board.
Ramnaresh Sarwan (22) and Chanderpaul (19) then made useful contributions, but it was the man-of-the-match, the tall, righthander Lennox Cush, who ensured Guyana would push past 200 with a 50-ball 41 (two sixes, one four).
Once again the spinning allrounders, Mahendra Nagamootoo (17) and Neil McGarrell (25 run-out off the last ball), played crucial, rapid-fire knocks at the death of the innings.
Yet again, left-arm swing/seam bowler, Ian Bradshaw, did well with 3-37 from 10 overs.
Guyana's bowlers had the perfect start, when Kurt Wilkinson was caught behind in the first over from pacer, Rayon Griffith, at 2-1.
The impressive 20 year-old Dwayne Smith (29) and the experienced West Indies discard, Sherwin Campbell (33), were confidently carrying Barbados forward when Smith, having cover drove and square-cut Griffith, magnificently for successive boundaries was bowled by one that shot through low in the seventh over, at 41-2.
Campbell, having played a number of imperious drives and cuts, was run-out at the non-striker's end on a throw from Chanderpaul at extra-cover as he was too late in turning back on a single that was never there. The score was then 76-3 in the 41st over.
The loss of Hinds in the 17th over at 92-4 flicking loosely to mid-wicket and Floyd Reifer (19) at 99-5, hitting out in an attempt to catch up with the scoring rate just as the rain was coming down, proved crucial under the Duckworth/Lewis system.
Barbados went to the hour-long rain break at 100-5 well behind Guyana in the runs/wickets calculations. And when play resumed and the calculations completed, the Bajans were set 184 -- 84 more in 11 overs -- to win.
As it turned out, it was mission impossible against the tough, efficient Guyanese.
Scoreboard:
Guyana innings
S Chattergoon st wk Browne b Hurley 24
R Ramdass c Smith b Wilkinson 37
R Sarwan c wk Browne b Bradshaw 22
S Chanderpaul w wk Browne b Bradshaw 19
L Cush b Collymore 41
N Deonarine lbw Bradshaw 0
M Nagamootoo c Collymore b Collins 17
N McGarrell run out 25
E Crandon c wk Browne b Collins 2
R Griffiths not out 2
Extras (byes1, leg byes 11, nb 3, w8) 23
Total (for 9 wickets in 50 overs) 212
Fall of wickets: 1-45, 2-82, 3-104, 4-111, 5-111, 6-157, 7-192, 8-198, 9-212
Bowling: Collins 10-1-37-2, Bradshaw 10-0-37-3, Collymore 10-0-40-1, Drakes 8-0-37-0, Hurley 6-1-31-1, Wilkinson 6-1-18-1
Barbados
K Wilkinson c wk V nagamootoo b Griffith 1
S Campbell run out 33
D Smith b Griffith 29
F Reifer c Chanderpaul b Cush 19
R Hinds c Chanderpaul b Cush 9
C Browne run out 21
R Hurley c Crandon b McGarrell 4
V Drakes run out 7
I Bradshaw not 12
P Collins run out 2
C Collymore b McGarrell 8
Extras (lb3, w4, nb3) 10
Total (all out, 36 overs) 156
Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-41, 3-76, 4-92, 5-99, 6-108, 7-124, 8-145, 9-149, 10-156.
Bowling: Griffith 7-0-51-2 (w1), Crandon 7-0-19- 0(w2, nb3 ), Cuswh 5-0-9-1, McGarrell 8-0-45-3, Deonarine 4-1-7-0, Nagamootoo 5-0-22-0 (w1)
Result: Guyana won by 27 runs
Revised target left Barbados needing 84 runs of 11 overs after rain came with the score at 100 for five off 26 overs.
Umpires: Steve Bucknor (Jamaica), Billy Doctrove (Dominica)