Permaul's Best Rattles Leewards
Career-best T20 figures by Veerasammy Permaul saw Guyana registering their first win of the T20 season-2017. He was especially a menace for the lower order batsmen, as he dismissed them either by the bowled or the LBW route.
Earlier in the day, Leewards won the toss and inserted Guyana in to take the first strike. Skipper Guptill and Walton again got Guyana to a decent start. They put on 56 in 7.2 overs as Alzarri Joseph got the breakthrough, dismissing Guptill for 30 off 25 balls. His knock was laced with 5 fours. Babar Azam came in at #3 and together with Walton they worked the ball around and got the odd boundary or two. After 10 overs, the score 75/1, Tabraiz Shamsi got the wicket of Walton in the 13th over for a well-paced inning of 40 (24; 5x4, 1x6). The youngster Hetmyer didn't last long. He hit one boundary and was then bowled by Cotterell for 5. Gajanand Singh playing in his first game at this level showed promise. He pounded a string of boundaries and then lost his wicket to Hasan Ali for 17(18); it was the last ball of the 19th over with the score on 141/4. Roshon Primus came in for the last ball of the innings and without hesitation walloped that ball down the ground to the long-off boundary. Guyana ended their innings on 152/5, 2 more runs that what the made in the first game. Babar Azam was left undefeated on 53(42 balls; 9x4).
Leewards having chased down a similar score, would have been confident with the task at hand. Tanvir struck in the 1st over removing Shamarh Brooks for 8. Rashid Khan came in to bowl the 2nd over of the innings. Captain Guptill was being aggressive on the batsmen, gotta get wickets. Wickets win you matches. Rashid rewarded his captain with the wicket of Mohammad Nabi in his second over. Nabi was looking dangerous, he made 15(11) with 2 boundaries and a maximum. Emrit came into bowl the next over got the wicket of the Professor with his first ball, Brandon King fell in the last ball of the over. Leewards were on the back foot now.
The cameo stars from the first game, Jonathan Carter and Devon Thomas joined forces in the last over of the powerplay with almost half the side down and with 114 runs still required in 90 balls. They were batting according to the required rate before Guptill pulled another trick out of his hat. He brought the all-rounder Primus in for the 9th over. Thomas was adjudged LBW to a ball from Primus. He made 9(12). Permaul was brought in for his 1st over of the game in the 13th over, and he made inroads immediately. He dismissed Jeremiah Louis and Hasan Ali in consecutive balls. Going for the kill, Guptill gave Rashid Khan the ball for the next over. Lots of chances followed as Carter and the tail-enders were trying to up the scoring. Rashid removed Cotterell for 5(11) in the 16th over as the Leewards were left with their last 2 wickets. The following over, Permaul did the cleanup job and removed Shamsi and Alzarri in back-to-back deliveries. It was a triumphant win for Guyana.
Summarized scores: Guyana- 152/5 in 20 overs (Babar 53*, Walton 40; Cotterell 2-32, Alzarri 1-20)
defeated Leewards- 112 all out in 16.3 overs (Carter 38*, Louis 16; Permaul 4-7, Emrit 2- 17) by 40 runs
Points: Guyana-2 Leewards-0