Tagenarine Chanderpaul stole the limelight on day two of the fifth round Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Jaguars Franchise League, Three-day tournament between West Demerara and Georgetown, Saturday at the Lusignan Community Centre ground.
Displaying his wide repertoire of strokes, the 20-year-old decimated the Georgetown attack with a scintillating 187, his first ton in the eight-round tournament.His 347-ball innings took West Demerara to 357, an overall lead of 187.
In reply, Georgetown were left with much work to do, after West Demerara successfully chipped away with the wickets of Robin Bacchus (4), Andrew Lyght Jr (23) and Sunil Singh (32) during the final session.
When play ended, Georgetown were 62-3, still facing a first innings deficit of 113 with seven wickets remaining.Jahran Byron and Christopher Barnwell will resume today on seven and four respectively.
Starting the day's play with the aim of out batting their opponents, West Demerara batsmen did exactly that.West Demerara's batting performance extended through two sessions of play on day two to put them in complete command and on course for victory.
First-class opener Chanderpaul and Akshaya Persaud showed a lot of composure in ensuring their team took complete control of the game.
Resuming on 96, Chanderpaul reached his hundred, while Persaud got to his fifty. Both batsmen reached their respective landmarks within the first 15 minutes of play.
Chanderpaul was certainly the hero of the innings with his first hundred in the tournament. It was decorated with two boundaries and five huge sixe and ended when he was nearing his double century.
The pair seized the advantage and took the score to 203. In the process they put together 163 runs for the fourth-wicket while taking the attack to the opposition bowlers.