Lara blitz leads Trinidad to victory

Trinidad 401 and 185 for 1 (Simmons 62, Barath 57*, Lara 53*) beat Guyana 334 and 249 (Sarwan 105*, Jaggernauth 5-52) by nine wickets
Scorecard

	Brian Lara hits out on his way to an unbeaten 53 © T&T Express

Brian Lara blasted an unbeaten 53 off 27 balls, with six fours and three sixes, to take Trinidad to a nine-wicket win over Guyana at the Queen's Park Oval.

Lara's arrival at the crease was preceded by a 106-run stand for the first wicket between Lendl Simmons and Adrian Barath, as Trinidad chased 183 off 47 overs. The duo oversaw two rain interruptions in the post-lunch session before Simmons' 62-run knock ended when he was trapped by left-arm spinner Veerasamy Rampaul.

Barath remained unbeaten on 57 when Trinidad claimed their victory, which was hastened by Lara's aggressive approach. Lara went on to claim the Man-of-the-Match award for his knocks of 123 and 53.

Earlier, offspinner Amit Jaggernauth claimed a five-for to bowl out Guyana, who rallied behind captain Ramnaresh Sarwan's unbeaten century, for 249. Jaggernauth struck early in the morning when he lured Sarwan's overnight partner, Asad Fudadin, into a fatal drive to extra cover when he was on 18.

Three lower-order batsman were added to Jaggernauth's kitty, while left-arm spinner Dave Mohammad claimed a brace of wickets. In the interim, Sarwan had managed to reach his seventh regional hundred and his second against Trinidad, before he remained stranded on 105 off 142 balls.

Jaggernauth, who was the highest wicket-taker in the previous edition of the Carib Beer series, finished with a match haul of 9 for 136 to take his overall first-class wickets tally to 125.

Trinidad now join Barbados and Jamaica, who had won their respective matches yesterday, at the top of the league standings after the first round.

Team	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	Draw	Aban	Pts
Barbados	1	1	0	0	0	0	12
Jamaica	1	1	0	0	0	0	12
Trinidad & T	1	1	0	0	0	0	12
Guyana	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
Leeward Islands	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
Windward Islands	1	0	1	0	0	0	0