T&T draw with Guyana at Guaracara

Brian Lara receives the Man-of-the-Match award for his first-innings hundred © Trinidad & Tobago Express

The securing of first-innings points by Trinidad and Tobago late on the third afternoon had threatened to condemn the last day of this Carib Beer Series fixture to drudgery. For the meagre gathering of spectators at Guaracara Park yesterday, that is just how it turned out, until Daren Ganga and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the captains, agreed to call the match off at 4.30 p.m. with Guyana on 159 for 3 in their second innings.

Ganga would have been the more satisfied of the two men, since his side had clinched first innings points in the drawn match, to go joint top of the standings with Barbados. That success, achieved largely through the 153 made by Man-of-the-Match Brian Lara, has allowed T&T to keep the momentum they established with their first innings victory on the road against the Leeward Islands in the first match of the competition last December, and built upon with their 282-run triumph over defending champions Jamaica in their second game at St Augustine two weeks ago.

So Ganga was a pretty satisfied man yesterday. "We are very happy we got first innings points against Guyana," he said. "We are looking forward against the Windward Islands. Our objective would be to win against Windward Islands."

That positive attitude T&T tried to maintain even yesterday when there seemed little to be achieved on a pitch still favourable to the batsmen. "We still thought we had a chance of winning this game outright," Ganga said. "We were very happy with first innings, but we thought our performance today would really tell our character, our strength as a team .We didn't really get much (wicket-taking) opportunities, but I thought the three wickets we got for 130-odd Guyana were under pressure and that's what good sides do, when you are on top you put sides under pressure. Unfortunately, we were not able to force an outright win."

The general confidence T&T have built up with their good start to the season was also reflected in Ganga's response to the failures of the opening pair of Lendl Simmons and Tishan Maraj in the three games thus far.

Ganga said there would be no rush to make changes. "We've had a couple meetings with the selectors and with both openers," he said. "We have every confidence in these guys that they can do the job for Trinidad and Tobago, so I think they will probably be given another shot. We are backing the guys all the way. What we don't want to have is guys being timid in terms of their own playing on the team."

Ganga's confidence in his unit was helped significantly in this game by the presence of Lara for the first time in two years. "Having Brian gives everybody confidence," he said. "The Guyanese, they were always backed against the wall knowing that Brian is on our team. Having the opportunity to chase 340-odd Shivnarine Chanderpaul was always on the defensive, if you looked at his field placing. I thought Brian played really well. Hats off to him and the way he applied himself A lot of young players are feeding off his experience and I think that is going to do Trinidad cricket well."

As for Chanderpaul, he hoped that his men would be able to go to Jamaica for their next match and "come out on top of that game and get into the semis and take it from there." And while he could not take away more than two points from this match, he at least was encouraged by the work of Esaun Crandon, whose seven-wicket effort almost got his side a first innings decision. "Right now he's opening a few selectors' eyes," said the West Indies captain. "I had a good look at him, Brian had a good look at him also He has to keep on doing those things."