MISSING OUT! Both Ramnaresh Sarwan, caught driving sweetly through the off-side for one of his eight fours and Travis Dowlin, caught playing an elegant off-drive missed out on scoring centuries yesterday. (Lawrence Fanfair photos)
Under a clear blue sky in the agriculture setting of Enmore, West Indies vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan and Travis Dowlin both missed out on scoring centuries as Guyana reached 266-5 against West Indies 'B' when the first day of their four-day Carib Beer regional first-class cricket encounter ended yesterday.
Sarwan, in his first match since returning from South Africa, fell five runs short of his tenth first-class hundred while Dowlin missed his third first-class ton by six runs.
The pair capitalised on a low and slow pitch to add 162 runs for the third wicket and rescue their team from the early loss of both openers Krishna Arjune and Sewnarine Chattergoon for 14 runs.
Both openers fell in the first 15 minutes of play after the West Indies 'B' won the toss and asked the home team, who desperately need to win both of their remaining matches to stand an outside chance of qualifying for the semi-finals, to bat first.
Chattergoon (3) edged a catch to the wicket-keeper at 5-1 as Dwight Washington made the breakthrough much to the dismay of a fair-sized week-day crowd which included lots of school children.
Jason Bennett, the leading West Indies 'B' team wicket-taker, then trapped Arjune LBW for two as Guyana, at the bottom of the points table in the competition, again stumbled at the start of their innings.
The 23-year-old Sarwan then joined forces with the in-form Dowlin to take Guyana to 79-2 by lunch against controlled bowling backed up by good fielding from the young West Indians.
Sarwan, 42 at lunch, soon got to his fifty with his fifth four and, along with Dowlin, entertained the crowd with solid if not explosive batting in bright sunshine.
Sarwan duly departed at 176-3, his 95 lasted 154 balls and came in 222 minutes. He reached the boundary eight times before he edged Bennett to the 'keeper to give the Barbadian pacer his 22nd wicket in the competition.
Narsingh Deonarine joined Dowlin, Man-of-the-match in the last two games and together they took Guyana to 178-3 by tea but the batsmen were made to work hard for their runs on a slightly heavy outfield.
After the break, Deonarine wasted another good start and threw his wicket away with a careless shot and was caught at long-off to give spinner Kenroy Williams his first scalp and leave Guyana on 244-4.
Deonarine faced 89 balls and batted for 108 minutes for his 35 and his demise was soon followed by a magnificent one-handed catch at short mid-wicket by Shawn Findley off Danza Hyatt to get rid of Dowlin.
Dowlin hit five fours from 231 balls in 242 minutes of impressive batting to help set up Guyana for what should be a challenging total today.
By the close, skipper Shivnarine Chanderpaul was already looking dangerous. The experienced test left-hander stroked Bennett for consecutive fours and has reached the boundary three times in his unbeaten 16.
With him is Damodar Daesrath on three and with Neil McGarell, the Nagamootoo brothers and Rayon Griffith still to come, Guyana will be hoping for a 400-plus total as they seek to press for an outright win.
Guyana left out off-spinner Zaheer Mohamed and pacer Esaun Crandon from their final eleven leaving them with just one specialist pacer in the team and a long batting line-up.
Bennett has so far picked up 2-44 from 15 overs and the action on the second day today is scheduled to commence at 10.00am.
Guyana first innings
K. Arjune LBW b Bennett 2
S. Chattergoon c Wkp. Brown b Washington 3
R. Sarwan c Wkp. Brown b Bennett 95
T. Dowlin c Findley b Hyatt 94
N. Deonarine c Richards b Williams 35
S. Chanderpaul not out 16
D. Daesrath not out 3
Extras (b-4, lb-2, w-1, nb-12) 19
Total 266-5
Fall of wickets- 5, 14, 176, 244, 248.
Bowling
Washington 10-2-44-1, Bennett 15-1-44-2, Austin 25-2-71-0, Thomas 11-2-34-0, Findley 8-3-13-0, Williams 7-0-20-1, Ramdas 2-0-9-0, Hyatt 12-4-25=1.