Narsingh, Kanhai Pile on the Runs

A fourth-wicket century partnership between left-handers Narsingh Deonarine, who hit a maiden hundred and Aneil Kanhai, highlighted a spirited batting display by West Indies ?B? on the opening day of their rescheduled Carib Beer Cup match against India ?A? yesterday.

Guyanese Deonarine and Kanhai, a Trinidadian, put on 155 in three hours as the rock-bottom West Indies Under-23 side closed on 324 for five off 88 overs before fading light stopped play after they were put in on an easy-paced Kensington Oval pitch. There were a whopping 58 extras including 46 no-balls.

This position has demoralised the Indians, who are on 33 points and must win here to finish third and gain a semifinal berth to join runaway champions Barbados, second-placed Guyana and Jamaica in the Carib Beer International Challenge, which starts next Friday.

Trinidad & Tobago will qualify if the Indians fail to gain full points.

The 19-year-old Deonarine, captain of the West Indies Under-19 team at the Youth World Cup in New Zealand, scored exactly 100 in 280 minutes off 198 balls with eleven fours and a six before edging pacer Tinu Yohannan to a solitary slip in substitute Hemang Badani, while the 20-year-old Kanhai made 64 which took his aggregate for the season to 518 at an average of 43.17. He hit seven fours.

Captain Shane Jeffers made 60.

Kanhai, a heavy-set player, is the first West Indies ?B? team player to score 500 runs in a season after the team played for the first time in 2001.

The heartening showing of the West Indies ?B?, came in the presence of the West Indies selection panel of chairman Sir Vivian Richards, Gordon Greenidge and Joey Carew, all watching from the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) Board Room as they met to pick a captain for the series against Australia starting April 10 in Guyana.

Following the dismissal of Barbadian Patrick Browne, who failed to score, the West Indies ?B? consolidated through two consecutive half-century stands between Jeffers and Martin Nurse (14) and Jeffers and Deonarine.

Browne was caught at second slip in the day's third over, edging an attempted back-foot drive off Avishkar Salvi.

The ball was first dropped at third slip by Jai Yadav, but an alert Akash Chopra gleefully held it.

Nurse, another Barbadian back in the side -- for Trinidadian Gregory Mahabir -- following his omission after three matches which had yielded him just 83 runs at an average of 13.83, got off the mark with a pulled six over midwicket off Yohannan from his fifth ball.

Jeffers played fairly solidly, including a pull to the midwicket boundary off Yohannan early in his innings. But he was lucky to survive on 12 as the same bowler missed a low return in his fifth over with the score 27 for one.

Jeffers punched leg-spinner Amit Mishra between extra-cover and mid-off for four to move to 25 and carry the score to 53 for one. The fifty came in 84 minutes, 115 balls.

A couple of balls later, Nurse was snapped up at forward short-leg off Mishra -- the batsman immediately walking before umpire Dalton Holder could confirm the decision.

Jeffers lifted Mishra for a boundary overhead shortly before lunch to move to 37 in a score of 81 for two.

At lunch the score was 88 for two off 24 overs with Jeffers on 42 and Deonarine eight.

Jeffers fell 19 minutes after the interval, bowled by Mishra as he backed away trying to cut a ball too close for the stroke. He occupied the crease for 143 minutes, faced 106 balls and struck six boundaries.

By tea, Deonarine and Kanhai had carried the score to 191 for three with Deonarine on 43 and Kanhai 40.

Deonarine was first to his fifty in 153 minutes off 107 balls with four fours and six. Kanhai got to his half-century with an excellent square-drive to the boundary off medium-pacer Jai Yadav. It took 108 minutes from 87 deliveries and contained seven boundaries.

Deonarine lifted Salvi over his head to the boundary at the Malcolm Marshall end to move to 63 in a score 226 for three. He soon savagely pulled Yadav to the mid-wicket boundary.

Deonarine reached 91 by punching Ambati Rayudu off the back-foot to the extra-cover boundary.

Carlton Baugh got off the mark with a lovely drive between mid-off and extra-cover to the boundary off Yohannan.

India ?A? made three changes with Hermang Badani, Lakshmipathy Balaji and the injured Murali Kartik, with a fractured left thumb, replaced by Rakesh Patel, Tinu Yohannan and Mishra.

Should India ?A? win here, Kartik will return home and Sarandeep Singh, the tall, bearded off-spinner who played in the opening Test against West Indies in Georgetown last year as a late call-up for the injured Harbhajan Singh, will be flown to Guyana for the semifinal.

Though Trinidad & Tobago have finished with the same number of points as Jamaica (43), Jamaica won the head-to-head clash in Round 6 in Port-of-Spain. Hence, Trinidad & Tobago will only qualify if India ?A? are beaten or held to a draw by West Indies B.

* SOURCE: Guyana Chronicle