Essequibo 32-4; B/ce 135 all out

Berbice fought back to attain a slight advantage at the end of the first day of the Castrol inter-county under-15 two-day cricket competition at the Police Sports Complex ground yesterday after being dismissed for a paltry first innings score.

The Berbicians, who were bowled out for 135, showed their fighting spirit by grabbing four wickets for 32 runs from 35 overs at the close of an absorbing day’s play.

Play was delayed for almost three hours due to the pitch being soaked from yesterday’s rain. The ground staff, which worked most off the morning drying and rolling the playing surface, said the covers that were provided leaked profusely.

Berbice batted first and seemed set for a big total despite the early loss of opener Joemally La Fleur who was trapped lbw by Neal Ramalho for five with the score on six.

But thereafter, skipper Harrinarine Chattergoon and Travis Karim entertained the small crowd with shots all around the wicket, putting on a second-wicket partnership of 91.

But from the comfortable position of 97-1, Berbice surprisingly collapsed like a pin-pricked baloon, losing their remaining nine wickets for only 38 runs.

The bowlers responsible for the berbicians collapse were leg-spinner Kerron Mc Lennon, who picked up 5-52 from 11.1 overs and off-spinner Nokta Moses, who supported with 3-14 from 10 overs.

Essequibo began their reply cautiously obviously looking for a sound start. As a result, openers Herrel Green and Devinash Ramnarine gave up too many scoring opportunities.

This put undue pressure on the team even though the Essequibo score reached 20 without the loss of a wicket. However, they subsequently lost four wickets before the total reached 30 and faces an uphill battle when play resumes this morning.

Again, it was the spinners who were responsible for putting the skids under the Essequibo batsmen. This time it was two diminutive spinners who handcuffed the Essequibo top order by challenging the batsmen to use their feet. Seven out of the nine overs bowled by LaFleur were maidens.

More importantly, he picked up three wickets at a miserly cost of five runs.

At the other end, left-arm spinner Trinson Carmichael bowled six maiden overs from his nine-over spell which cost four runs. He claimed one wicket.

Essequibo, still 103 runs behind on first innings, must try to consolidate what is left of their innings with skipper Rovindra Mohammed not out on four and Rove Harris on one when play resumes today, when, because of the time lost, play is scheduled to start at 9.30am. (RP)