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Chanderpaul father-son duo make history

Windies Test legend and his 20-year-old son record unique feat after making 50s in same first-class match

Shivnarine Chanderpaul made a habit of trailblazing during a two-decade long international career and the West Indies legend has made history once again in a regional Caribbean first-class match this week.

In a four-day game for his native Guyana against Jamaica, the 42-year-old brought up his 136th first-class half-century only hours after his 20-year-old son Tagenarine had also reached 50 on day two of the clash at Sabina Park.

It's the first time a father-son duo have notched half-centuries in the same first-class match since George Gunn and his son George Vernon made struck tons in a match for Nottinghamshire in 1931.

Since making his first-class debut in 2013 with his father’s Test career still in full flow, Tagenarine Chanderpaul has played five matches (including the ongoing one, which still has a day to go) alongside his dad, but it’s the first occasion where both have made telling contributions in the same game.

Image Id: A0E35EB86C3E4656BC5B9BA025EDCF22 Image Caption: Shivnarine (left) and Tagenarine (right) share a number of notable traits // Getty/WICB Media

Opening the batting after Jamaica were dismissed for 255, the younger Chanderpaul put on 104 for the first-wicket with Shimron Hetmyer before three quick wickets brought the Windies' second all-time leading Test run-scorer to the crease to join his son.

The elder Chanderpaul was handed an early life when Jermaine Blackwood dropped him on seven at first-slip, but after the pair put on 38 in 12 overs, Blackwood made no mistake a second time around when Tagenarine edged one to him on 58.

Shivnarine, who signed a one-year deal in January to play with England county outfit Lancashire as a Kolpak player this year, completed the unique double by posting a fighting 57 to help Guyana take a slender first-innings lead.

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But a historic match took a painful shift for the younger Chanderpaul in the second innings when he was forced to retire hurt and seek treatment in hospital after a lifter from Test paceman Jerome Taylor struck him on the left hand.

Shivnarine was not out on 0 at stumps on day three with Guyana 2-79 needing a further 103 runs to win.

A left-hander like his father, Tagenarine captained the West Indies at Under-19 level and is currently playing in his 16th first-class match, with his 50 against Jamaica the third half-century of his fledgling career.

Image Id: F4A19DDF84954CECA50746F67E405029 Image Caption: Tagenarine Chanderpaul drives for the Windies in the 2014 U19 World Cup // Getty

Last month, he was selected in a University of the West Indies Vice Chancellor's XI to play a 50-over tour match against England, where he made a run-a-ball 13 before falling to leg-spinner Adil Rashid.

Instances of fathers and sons playing alongside one another in domestic cricket have been rare in recent decades, and it’s never happened in international cricket.

Former Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak played with his father Denis in the mid-nineties as the pair helped Matabeleland claim the 1996 Logan Cup (Zimbabwe’s first-class competition) title.

In 1999, a 50-year-old Dennis Lillee opened the bowling with his son Adam in a Australian Cricket Board Chairman’s XI tour match against a Pakistan side featuring Shoaib Akhtar, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmed and Mohammad Yousuf.

Both picked up three wickets while the younger Lillee took a superb one-handed catch at fine-leg off the ex-Test quick’s bowling to remove Pakistan opener Ghulan Ali.

And much further back, legendary Englishman WG Grace played first-class matches alongside two of his children, Charles and WG Junior, in the early 1900s.