New Amsterdam’s Bermine Cricket Club of Zone A joined Zone B’s Albion and Port Mourant Community Centres respectively in the Berbice semi-finals of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Neal and Massey 40 overs-a-side competition last weekend.

Wahied Edwards

To reach that stage in the competition, Bermine defeated the powerful and seemingly unbeaten Young Warriors by five wickets in their game played at the Cumberland ground on Saturday, thanks to the all-round efforts of former national under-19 all rounder Devon Clements.

Clements took 3-32 from his seven overs to restrict Young Warriors to 146-9 from their 40 overs before returning with the bat to make an unbeaten 47 to see his team to 147-5 from 30.2 overs.

When Young Warriors batted, they were indebted to Waheid Edwards who made 30 and received support from Farouk Hussain (26) and Balram Samaroo with 21 against the bowling of Clements (3-32) and national under-19 captain and left arm orthodox bowler Eugene La Fleur who took 2-28 and off spinner Stephen Latcha 2-34.

When Bermine began their reply, they found themselves shakily placed on 48-2, but Clements (47*) held things together for them, by first adding 32 for the third wicket with Anthony D’Andrade who made 37 and a further 47 for the fourth wicket with Dane Benny (16) as they reached 147-5 from 30.2 overs. On Saturday, Young Warriors defeated Rose Hall Community Centre (RHCC) by 119 runs thanks to a responsible 101 from Edwards and 54 from former Guyana and West Indies under-19 opener Richard Ramdeen who posted 109 for the third wicket. Hussain also chipped in with 47 as Young Warriors reached 251-8 from their 40 overs.

Fast bowler Rafik Kassim who took 2-35, Sean Jhetoo (2-39) and Romesh Munna with 2-49 were the principal wicket takers for RHCC who were then bowled out for 132 from 39.2 overs despite a fighting 66 (7×4;2×6) from Munna.

Kwesi Maltay with 4-19 and Paul Wintz 2-36 were the destroyers of RHCC batting for Young Warriors.

Meanwhile, the win by Bermine over Young Warriors took them to top of the zone with 14 points and a certain place in the semi-final, even though Young Warriors (8 points) who have two more games to play and West Berbice (12 points) and one game to play are in contention for a semi-final spot also.