By Brandon Corlette
@brandoncorlette
Cricket is a game of glorious uncertainty.
Whether or not the Guyana Harpy Eagles will win and retain the Regional Four-Day title remains an untold story.
Guyana are fourth on the points table, with 66.8 points, 14.4 points behind the table leaders, Leeward Islands Hurricanes. Guyana will have two more matches to go further up the table, when they meet Jamaica at Sabina Park from April 10, and then play Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) from April 17 at UWI SPEC in Trinidad.
The season has been a mixed one for Guyana thus far. After five matches, Guyana recorded three wins and suffered one defeat, and recorded one draw.
In answering the question on how Guyana will win the tournament this season, Tevin Imlach and his side will have to show more dominance in all facets of the game. With Jamaica having a mixed season with two wins and three defeats, Guyana will have to enter the yardmen back-yard and win big. Importantly, Guyana must grab as much fast-bowling points as possible.
The Guyanese will fancy their chances against CCC, where batsmen will want to full their shoe against an inexperienced bowling line-up, but again, cricket is a game of glorious uncertainty.
How the Guyanese stats round up after five rounds
As it relates to runs, West Indies all-rounder Kevin Sinclair has 412 runs at a stellar average of 68.66. He recorded one century, a career best 165* and two fifties. Sinclair is only five runs away from the leading run-scorer this season, Mikyle Louis (417).
Kevlon Anderson, who was given the captaincy early in the tournament while Tevin Imlach was away on West Indies duties, has 271 runs, the next best for a Guyanese. Anderson’s 271 runs came at an average of 38.7.
Test opener, Tagenarine Chanderpaul who had a poor run of form, redeemed himself with a century in the last game. He scored 257 runs this season, with an average of 36.71 with a high score of 101 not out. Imlach returned, and in his three matches, he has 255 runs at 39.16, with one fifty and one century.
As a batting unit, collectively, Guyana has been relatively ordinary. Veerasammy Permaul has 242 runs, more than Kemol Savory (128), Ronaldo AliMohamed (128), Matthew Nandu (122) and Raymond Perez (55); who are all more established batsmen than Permaul.
In terms of wickets, it is usually a norm for Permaul to dominate. This season, it has been Jomel Warrican, another left-arm spinner who has 30 wickets, 12 more than Permaul’s 18.
Nial Smith who returned from injury, impressed immediately. He is Guyana’s second leading wicket-taker behind Permaul, with 13 wickets in two matches, at 15.15. Promising speedster Isai Thorne has been the find for Guyana this season, after he replaced the suspected Ronsford Beaton. Thorne has 12 wickets at 24.83.
Test spinner Gudakesh Motie has 11 wickets, along with AliMohamed (11). Kevin Sinclair has been doing more batting than bowling, and he has eight wickets along with his 412 runs with the bat.
The Guyanese side is expected leave Guyana for Jamaica on Sunday April 7; and the main goal is to win, and win big to retain that Regional Four-Day championship.