Second national cricket trial
Pooran, Arjune miss 2nd day centuries
By Sean Devers at Bourda
Stabroek News
November 27, 2003
Hoomchand Pooran and Krishna Arjune missed centuries as Mahendra Nagamootoo's X1 were 277-5 in reply to Neil McGarrell's X1 when play on the truncated second day of their second and final four-day national cricket trial ended at Bourda yesterday.
Nagamootoo's X1 resumed on their overnight score of 53-1 and progressed to 120-1 by lunch on a flat track in sunny conditions.
A short but heavy shower sent the players scurrying off the field 47 minutes after lunch resulting in an early tea break being taken.
When play resumed twenty-year-old Essequibo leg spinner Brian Stephney denied the in-form Arjune his second consecutive hundred when the Everest right-hander from Unity village was taken at mid-on for 84 at 174-2.
Arjune faced 195 balls, batted for 257 minutes and hit seven fours in his innings. He added 169 for the second wicket with Pooran after the pair had joined forces on Tuesday afternoon with the score on 5-1.
Stephney, who attended the Shell cricket Academy in Grenada this year before surprisingly being left out of the Essequibo senior inter-county squad, struck again at 201-3 when Pooran was dispatched for 92. The Berbician reached the boundary eight times and cleared it twice in his 202- ball and 245-minute knock on the heavy outfield.
Skipper Neil McGarrell, the left-arm spinner with test experience, then struck twice in quick succession as Nagamootoo's X1 slipped to 257-5 when two wickets tumbled for just seven runs.
All-rounder Lennox Cush and 16-year-old Leon Johnson both made 28 before Cush was caught and bowled just when he was looking set for a big score at 250-4 while the left-handed Johnson, whose style is very similar to that of West Indies captain Brian Lara, was taken by Troy Cornelius at 257-5.
National under-19 skipper Assad Fudadin (13) and his fellow West Indies under-19 team mate Zamal Khan (9) survived to be unbeaten at the close as the sun returned in all its glory.
McGarrell has so far taken 2-21 while Stephney has 2-58.
Today is the penultimate day and play is scheduled to commence at 9:30 hours. The Guyana squad to participate in the 2004 Carib Cup regional first-class competition is expected to be selected this weekend.