Shivnarine Chanderpaul becomes the oldest FC centurion since 1995

Former Windies player Shivnarine Chanderpaul made his appearance in their regional 4-day tournament where he continued his act of saving teams even at the age of 43 as he scored a hundred for his Guyana team while following-on and thus became the oldest player to score a first-class hundred in 23 years. Chanderpaul remained as an active player after his Test retirement by representing Lancashire in the County Championship and signed up with them for the next year as well.

Chanderpaul, who missed out the first two matches in the WICB Professional Cricket League Regional 4-Day Tournament, represented them in the 3rd round game against the Leeward Islands at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua. With help of four individual fifties, Leeward Islands posted a 412-run total after Guyana invited the home team to bat first.

Guyana were bowled out for just 206 in their first innings and the home team decided to enforce a follow-on with four sessions left in the game. Shivnarine’s son, Tagenarine batted 106 balls for 16 runs in an effort to save the game but Guyana lost four wickets for 79 runs with another two and a half sessions to be played. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who scored just five runs in the first innings, came out to bat with aggressive intent in the 2nd innings.

He scored 109 off 147 balls with 10 fours and two sixes to help his side overcome the deficit. By end of the game, Guyana survived a defeat by scoring 305/7 after batting 115 overs in the 2nd essay. This was his 77th century in first-class cricket and his 19th in the WICB regional 4-day tournament. Chanderpaul also completed 27000 runs in his first-class career.

He started the game at the age of 43 years and 85 days, which makes him the oldest FC centurion since Syed Kirmani in February 1994 at the age of 44 years and 59 days. Kirmani scored a century in the 1994/95 Ranji Trophy quarter-final game for Karnataka. Chanderpaul is also the first player to score a FC century after turning 43 since Graham Gooch in 1996 English season.

Oldest to score a century in first-class cricket since 1987:

(Stats as on November 12, 2017)