Trinidad clubs: Queen's Park forge ahead (19 April 1998)

Sunday, April 19, 1998

Queen's Park forge ahead

By GARTH WATTLEY, FORBES PERSAUD

QUEEN'S Park Cricket Club's climb to the top of the Carib National League has been forged by their youth brigade. And yesterday at Presentation College, Chaguanas, their young footsoldiers were threatening to keep them at the top after the first day of round four Division one action. Ricardo Paty especially.

The former National Under-19 player was first batsman, getting an accomplished 40 to lift his side to 231 in their first innings. Then, armed with the new ball, he became incisive pacer, he and young left-arm fast medium Asif Jan sharing three late-evening wickets to leave the defending champions reeling on 15 for 3 before bad light stopped play. Those inspired efforts would have given Parkite skipper AndrŽ Lawrence and his men satisfaction, especially since the chasing pack did not manage quite so much.

But the runs did flow, especially at the Brian Lara Recreation Ground in Santa Cruz, where opener Barry Nicholas struck a solid century (101) to help fourth-placed Santa Cruz Sports to a promising 218 for 4 against second-placed Clarke Road United.

At Chaguaramas, Moosai Sports made 229 despite a haul of 7 for 78 from Robert Isaac.

Down at Pierre Road, home team Alescon Comet put down at least four chances, as third-placed Wanderers racked up 182 for 5 in a shortened afternoon's play.

At Presentation College, coming to the crease with his side stumbling at 176 for 7 after Navin Chan and Derek Agge both went on the same score, Paty got 40 of the 55 important runs added by the last three wickets. The effort supported the 53 made by his skipper, but the other top order batsmen despite getting starts had not really helped him.

Most of Paty's level-headed, generally orthodox batting was done in partnership with Gregory Davis who made a patient (31) in nearly two hours.

The pair steadied the mid-innings slide with a stand of 43 before Davis was beaten by some Rukam Jaggernauth guile-the batsman being drawn out of his ground by a faster ball-and undone by another piece of lightning David Williams sleight of hand.

An acrobatic one-handed effort by a leaping Williams also got rid of Asif Jan, responding to Paty's ill-advised call for a single. Paty ended the innings unbeaten.

But before the umpires deemed the light too poor to continue, he had sent back opener Shastri Gopaul and Adesh Dass, both caught by wicketkeeper Chan. Jan began Central Sports' trouble when he trapped Anderson Persad lbw.

At Brian Lara Recreation Ground, however, there was no youth movement powering the Santa Cruz effort.

Nicholas and the veteran Frank Sorzano (78) shared an opening stand of 171 which set up the home team's innings.

Nicholas's disciplined 101 mixed aggression with sound defence. He belted ten boundaries, one a sweetly timed extra-cover drive off spinner Suruj Mahabir.

Sorzano continued his recent good form, striking five fours before he was bowled by David Sultan playing a tired-looking shot.

Nicholas, who reached his century via two overthrows, was eventually lbw to Sultan.

At Pierre Road, Dudnath Mahabir struck 11 fours and a six in between his three chances to get to 59 as Wanderers, winning the toss and batting first, picked up one bonus point. Mahabir's effort plus an unbeaten 35 from skipper Narine Bideshi got Wanderers to 182 despite the bowling of Comet captain Dinanath Ramnarine (3/63) and Anil Balliram (2/55) who between them sent 45 of the 55 overs bowled.

Summarised scores:

At Brian Lara Recreation Ground: Santa Cruz 218-4 (B.Nicholas 101, F.Sorzano 78; P.Persad 2/19).

At Presentation College: Queen's Park 231 (A.Lawrence 53, R.Paty 40 n.o., S.Ragoonath 37, A.Thomas 32, G. Davis 31; V.Ramoutar 3/62, R. Jaggernauth 2/85, P. Ramnath 2/62, M. Bodoe 2/21) v Sims Central Sports 15 for 3 (R. Paty 2/6)

At Pierre Road: Caroni Wanderers 182 for 5 (D.Mahabir 59, N.Bideshi 35 n.o., J.Rampersad 25 n.o.; D.Ramnarine 3/63, A.Balliram 2/55) v Alescon Comet

At Chaguaramas: Moosai Sports 229 (L.Romero 55; R.Isaac 7/78) v Defence Force 4 for 2 (T. Gray 2/1)

Division. 2

At Guaracara Park: 248 for 9 dec. (D.Cummings 88, R.Mahadeo 39; M.Black 4/53, K.Lalchan 4/50) v Clico Preysal 4 for 0.

Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)