Guyana Ties With Pakistan, After Win Over Bangladesh

The Guyana team celebrates the fall of wicket during their clash with Bangladesh. Photos by Shiek Mohamed

By John L. Aaron | Scorecard | Photo Gallery | Video
With Team Pakistan clearly ahead, despite a nail-biting loss to Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana is now tied with Pakistan and ahead of Bangladesh and T&T, at the completion of the first-round of matches in the Rockaway T20 New York Cricket Fiesta. Pakistan leads the four-nation tournament with a 2.6796 net run rate. Guyana sits at 0.7825 and Bangladesh and T&T with -1.1333 and -2.6276.

Coming off of a crushing defeat at the hands of Pakistan, Guyana needed the win against Bangladesh to remain competitive in the inaugural Rockaway Group of Companies sponsored T20 tournament.

Batting first Guyana scraped together an ignominious total of 160 for the loss of eight wickets, mainly behind the bat of its skipper Karan Ganesh (58*) off 40 balls (3x6s, 4x4s). Other double-figure contributions came off the bats of Derrick Narine, 28, Dyanand Roopnarine, 18, Rennick Batson, 16 and Mr. Extras, 16. Bowling for Bangladesh – Anif Islam had figures of 4-0-32-4, with M.D. Kamruzzaman and Robin Das each grabbing two wickets apiece at 25 and 31 respectively. Guyana would have to defend 8.0 per over – but defend it they did.

Guyana skipper Karan Ganesh has a superb game, hitting an unbeaten 58 and picking up 2 for 9.

Not unlike T&T, Bangladesh is a team still struggling to find its footing in this inaugural T20 tournament, was off to a poor start losing its first three wickets with less than 25 runs on the board. Their inauspicious start was for a brief moment steadied by the willows of Anif Islam and Abu Siddik each with 20 runs apiece, Anindo Das (17) and skipper Syed Hussain (16). The other batsmen failed to cross the double-digit line. Bangladesh would crumble at 124 all out with seven deliveries left on the shelf.

All in all, it was not so much that Bangladesh lost, but Guyana won in a less than convincing fashion, as the majority of Team Guyana’s big bats on the squad failed to post less than their usual 30s. 40s and 50s. It was the very tight bowling of skipper Karan Ganesh 3.0-0-9-2, Mark Tyrell 4.0-0-22-2 and Michael Noble 3.5-0-22-3. Rennick Batson grabbed the remaining wicket at a cost of 20 off two overs.

With the 36-run victory Team Guyana moves into the second slot behind Pakistan though tied at 10 points with the leader. Bangladesh sits atop Trinidad & Tobago, with five points, but a slightly better net run rate.

Team Pakistan and Guyana are expected to field teams at their fullest potential during the second round of matches. The upcoming matches promises to be even more exciting than last Saturday’s clash between T&T and Pakistan.

Guyana plays an invigorated Trinidad & Tobago at 9:00am and Pakistan plays the sleeper Team Bangladesh at 1:00pm this Saturday July 2nd at Baisley Pond Park, to kick off the second round.