Barnwell, Reifer star to hand USA second straight defeat

It was a case of so near yet so far for USA who went down once again to Guyana in a 13-run defeat in the Colonel Regional Super 50 tournament in Port of Spain. The Guyana bowlers were spearheaded by Raymon Reifer, who continued his red hot bowling form from the CPL to strangle the USA batsmen on a slightly weary and iffy Queen's Park Oval wicket. USA stayed alive in the chase for long but never looked like running away with the game at any stage and eventually failed to smack the finishing punch.

USA made four sweeping changes. Sagar Patel, Ian Holland, Cameron Stevenson and Nosthush Kenjige came in as part of their broader strategy to test the 'water in their tanks' before heading to the hot and arid sands of the UAE. USA put Guyana into bat after winning the toss and out strode Chanderpaul Hemraj and the chip of the old block Tagenarine Chanderpaul with Shivnarine Chanderpaul in attendance as the Guyana coach.

Captain Saurabh Netravalkar and Cameron Stevenson opened the bowling in an overcast and gloomy conditions. Netravalkar produced a spell for the ages with immaculate line and length. He let his outswinger loose with such precision that batsmen found it hard to even make contact with the ball, let alone stealing a run. Netravalkar's first 8 overs had 4 maidens and only 9 runs to account for. The captain also gave the side the first breakthrough pinning Hemraj plumb in front to a surprise inswinger.

Stevenson, too bowled with a lot of venom and zing, consistently clocking over 135kmph -- something dearly amiss at the associate level. He too wasn't far behind to get his first wicket in USA colors castling Kemol Savory with a snorter, a delivery coming in from right arm over with a hint of away swing from the left hander, pitching on off and straightening a tad bit to hit the top of off stump.

Leon Johnson and Tagenarine Chanderpaul began a steady recovery as Guyana was tottering for 6 for 2. The recovery came albeit a little slow as Chanderpaul clearly struggled all day to find the middle of the bat as even singles seemed as gold dust for him. At one point he was 11 off 50 balls. Leon Johnson tried to break the shackles by depositing one over the ropes in the 18th over. He played some handsome strokes before Taylor got him out caught at slip off a delivery that breaked away sharply. The wicket was a result of some smart captaincy by Netravalkar as he always kept six men in the ring along with a slip to keep the pressure on the Guyana batters.

At 67 for 3 in the 25th over, in came Christopher Barnwell to change the complexion of the game. The tall and bulky Guyanese showed his intent of going big almost immediately, bludgeoning one into the stands by midwicket of his 3rd delivery. Barnwell kept on plundering boundaries off bad deliveries from USA spinners who either bowled a tad on the shorter side or overpitched deliveries especially Kenjige who got a game after a long while.

Gore ended Chanderpaul's workman like innings by having trapped in front, ending the innings on 40 runs off 104 balls. Barnwell who initially struggled to read Timil's googly got stuck in him in his 5th over as he swatted him for 16 runs off the over. Ian Holland eventually dismissed Barnwell off a well disguised slower ball, taking the pace off the ball by running his fingers over it. Barnwell offered a simple catch at short cover before changing the game on its head with a match winning 80.

Jonathan Foo provided some much needed lower order runs with an innings of 39 to take Guyana to 226 before being bowled out in the final over. USA did well to restrict Guyana to 54/5 in their final 10 overs. Holland in particular showed his repertoire of death bowling streets smarts with an array of slower deliveries.

USA once again went in with a new opening combination in Monank and Sagar. The pair started in a slow manner with Sagar Patel making a comeback after a long hiatus. Sagar looked to be having cold feet and although he was finding the middle of the bat, he failed to get a free flowing innings going. Reifer clean bowled Sagar in the 8th over having his off stump uprooted to a ball that straightened a wee bit from the left arm round angle.

Monank Patel showed glimpses of his brilliance with a couple of majestic shots, a straight drive off Reifer and a flick shot to the midwicket area with his weight firmly on the back foot against Beaton. Steven Taylor came out all guns blazing. He took apart Reifer in the last over before powerplay with a brute of a flick through mid-on and two marvelous cover drives.

USA looked set on getting a match winning partnership together before an umpiring howler ended the stand abruptly at 59 in the 16thover, with Taylor being the victim on this occasion. Aaron Jones joined Monank in the middle. Jones departed after a lumberous stay on the wicket again being susceptible to the arm ball and getting cleaned up stuck on the back foot with 9 off 29 balls. Monank Patel who had managed to hold the innings together up until now departed soon too having scored 43 off 79 balls. Monank played the flick shot too early to a ball that didn't quite come on to the bat and gave a return catch to Reifer.

Homraj and Holland took the innings forward doing enough to keep USA in the game. Holland struck two boundaries on his way to 28 off 40 balls before being stumped off Hemraj. Gore joined Akshay Homraj with the target still being very much in the reach at 86 needed off 73 balls. Homraj and Gore failed to get the ball off the square and couldn't manage a few much needed lusty blows to bring down the required run rate. Having already been dropped twice Homraj departed for 32 with USA needing 55 off 39. The USA tail toiled hard to get to their target of 227 but it was a little too late as Reifer kept on thwarting the USA chase in death with regular wickets.

There are a lot of positives to be taken back to the USA. However, the side will still need to get their house in order as far as their batting is concerned. The management has been vocal about trying out different permutations and combinations but there are some perennial issues such as high dot ball percentage (57%) and absence of lower order power hitting options that are still ailing them. USA play their next game against Windward Islands on Wednesday at Tarouba.

Brief Scores: Guyana 226/10 in 49.5 overs (Christopher Barnwell 80 (63), Leon Johnson 43 (57); Karima Gore 3-38) beat USA 213/9 in 50 overs (Monank Patel 43 (79), Akshay Homraj 32 (49); Raymon Reifer 5-35) by 13 runs