Essequibo, also known as the Cinderella County could not summon her fairy godmother for help yesterday going down to Berbice by an innings and 151 runs in their Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) senior four-day Inter-County cricket match at the Demerara Cricket Club ground, (DCC) Queenstown.
Resuming on 186-5 and needing to score another 217 runs to make Berbice bat again, the Essequibians, who are the perennial whipping boys of Inter-County cricket, were bowled out for 252, a mere 71 minutes in the day’s play.
Overnight batsmen Ramesh Narine (60) and Rayon Thomas (12) added a further 10 runs to the total before Narine went for a cheeky single after pushing a ball to short cover and was run out as Thomas refused to respond.
He batted for 105 minutes, faced 85 balls and struck five fours and three sixes.
His demise signalled the return of opener Yogeshwar Lall who had retired hurt the previous day after being struck on the ankle.
Lall and Thomas duly brought up the 200 before Thomas, who was looking solid in defence against the spinners, went for an uncalled for drive against left arm orthodox spinner Verasammy Permaul, got an outside edge and was caught by Gajanand Singh at second slip.
He faced 41 balls during his 54 minutes of batting, striking one huge six and a four both off Royston Crandon.
Zakie Salim joined Lall at 209-7, and, after hitting Crandon for a six into the sight screen at the Lance Gibbs Street end, went tentatively forward to the same bowler two balls later and presented Maxie De Jonge at forward short leg with an easy catch. Salim made eight from the 11 balls.
At 226-8, captain Trevon Garraway entered looking constantly towards the heavens. He came off the mark with a spanking extra cover drive off Crandon and, with Lall who was using Ryan Fredericks as his runner, posted 18 for the ninth wicket before Garraway went for an injudicious pull off Devendra Bishu’s third delivery of the day and picked out Permaul on the mid-wicket boundary.
He made five with one four from 17 balls during his 17-minute stay.
Andrew Williams came and went stumped by wicket keeper Delbert Hicks for two. His only scoring shot, a drive through point brought up his team’s 250, but after bowling a no ball, Bishu drew him out of his wicket with a well flighted delivery next ball and Hicks did the rest leaving Lall high and dry on 38.
Williams faced nine balls during his eight minutes stay at the wicket, while Lall batted for 134 minutes, faced 103 deliveries and struck four fours for his unbeaten 38.
Crandon was the pick of the Berbice bowlers with 4-57 from 17 overs, while Bishu took 2-36 from 14 overs. First innings wrecker Gordon got 1-40 from 16 hostile overs and Permaul took 1-43 from the 26 overs that he bowled.
The final match in the competition will commence on Thursday at the Police Sports Club ground, Eve Leary between Demerara and Essequibo where an exciting clash is scheduled to take place.
