Andrea Creary in action at Kensington Oval on April 23, 2005. - junior dowie

georgetown, guyana, (cmc)

Guyana used their spinners to torment Jamaica and then Gajanand Singh stroked an unbeaten half century to consolidate their position on the opening day of their 4th Round TCL Group West Indies Under-19 cricket match yesterday.

Responding to Jamaica's flimsy first innings score of 89 at the Enmore Ground, Guyana were already 83 ahead with six wickets standing at stumps.

Guyana were 172 for four, with Singh not out on 64 and Krishna Deosaran with him on 13.

Earlier, left-arm spinner Verasammy Permaul (3-25) and skipper Steven Jacobs (3-26) conspired to dismiss the Jamaicans for the lowest total in this year's competition.

Singh, who scored 60 against the Leeward Islands and an even century against the Windward Islands, took his series aggregate to 233 as tournament leaders Guyana closed in a strong position.

Commanding position

Singh and Deosaran, who saw their team to the close in a commanding position, will continue tomorrow as they target an outright win.

Asked to bat on a flat track, Jamaica's ordinary run in the competition continued as the visitors, undermined by a combination of steady bowling and loose shot selection, wobbled to 64 for seven by lunch.

Marlon Johnson, Jamaica's leading batsman with 194 runs, was caught behind by Maxwell Georgeson for one.

Three runs later Zeniffe Fowler, who missed the last two games due to a hand injury, edged to third slip after making two to leave the score on eight for two.

Jamie Trenchfield, who gave up the captaincy to concentrate on his batting, was sent back caught at slip for nine, while Andre Creary (8) was bowled by Permaul at 39 for four.

Shemroy Barrington at short-leg held his seventh catch of the series to remove Shacoya Thomas (2) off Permaul four runs later.

Rasheed Outar (10) and Cordel Simpson (0) were removed in quick succession by off-spinner Jacobs as the home team dominated the first session.

After the interval, Andre Russell (12) and Andre Lindsay (12) were dismissed by Permaul and Jacobs respectively as Jamaica slumped to 66 for nine.

However, the last pair of Jason Dawes (19) and Christopher Watson (2 not out) added 23 in 30 minutes to take Jamaica nearer the 100-mark.

Russell, Dawes, Simpson and Creary have so far taken a wicket a piece for the Jamaicans.