– says Brandon Corlette
In the just-concluded Super50 tournament, Guyana finished with 10 points in five matches, registering two wins and suffering three heavy defeats. The top performers for the Guyanese were Berbicians – Shemaine Campbelle, who finished with 211 runs, and Erva Giddings, who captured 10 wickets and scored 70 runs.
On reflecting on the performances of Team Guyana in the Super50 tournament, the showing was below par. Prior to this regional tournament, the ladies were engaged in the inter-county tournament that saw Berbice reigning supreme. In contrast to the other countries, such as Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, where most of the players are exposed to competitive club and league cricket throughout the year.
The Berbicians play for the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC), the Hilbert Foster-led Club, which facilitates the development of female cricket among other clubs in Berbice. Six of the eight Berbicians in the team came from the RHTY&SC.
Guyana began their campaign with a 69-run defeat against Trinidad and Tobago, losing in critical moments. The game that Guyana thought they had in the bag was against Jamaica as Shemaine Campbelle’s brilliant 111 eventually went in vain. Guyana made fielding errors that proved costly, handing the Jamaicans a six-wicket win at Everest.
Unsurprisingly, Guyana got their first win of the tournament when they defeated the jaded Leeward Islands by 131 runs. In that victory, the Guyanese did not have a complete performance as they continued to display their flaws in the field, dropping sitters and misfielding.
The Guyanese returned to losing ways against Barbados when they lost by five wickets after failing to capitalise as top-order batters with the exception of Campbelle failed to score significantly. The fifth and final round saw Guyana complete a 57-run win over Windward Islands. Guyana attained victory over two of the weakest teams in the competition and within those victories, the team have not recorded comprehensive and complete performances.
Apart from Captain Campbelle, who scored 211 runs at an average of 42.2, only Shabika Gajnabi scored more than 100 runs, ending the five matches with 136 runs at an average of 27.2. Sheneta Grimmond scored 71 runs in five matches, Melanie Henry had 24 runs, Akaze Thompson scored 30 runs and Lashuna Toussaint scored 18 runs in three innings, including two ducks – all specialist batters.
Opener Mandy Mangru played four matches and scored 63 runs, but the pacers from Berbice had more success with the bat compared to the few specialist batters: Tremayne Smartt scored 98 runs in five matches and Erva Giddings scored 70 runs.
In the bowling department, the experienced left-arm seamer, Erva Giddings led from the front with 10 wickets in the tournament, the most by a Guyanese. Giddings, who bowled the new ball, produced the early breakthrough on various occasions; she had 2-34, 3-39, 1-9, 2-52 and 2-14 in the five matches she played.
Grimmond was the second best Guyanese bowler, finishing with nine wickets in the tournament. Thompson had five wickets while off-spinners, Plafianna Millington and Mandy Mangru had four wickets in the three matches they took the ball.
Guyana will hit the reboot button when they open their T20 Blaze campaign against Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday, March 28 from 14:00h at the National Stadium, Providence. The administrators of female cricket must put more into the development of the female game in order to reap fruitful results.
