Young Warriors Cricket Club and Albion Community Centre have advanced to the semifinals as action in the Berbice leg of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Carib Beer/Pepsi sponsored national 20/20 cricket competition for first division clubs continued last weekend with five matches played.
At Blairmont, Young Warriors defeated Blairmont by 17 runs in their fixture to top Zone A. Winning the toss and choosing to bat first, Young Warriors reached 129-8 when their overs ran out with Farouk Hussain leading the batting with a defiant 79 (4x6s; 6x4s) Krisendat Bissoondial 3-15 and Mohammed Y 2-27.
In reply, the home team was bowled out for 112 with only Horace Mc Donald 22 being the lone batsman to offer resistance to the bowling of former Berbice all rounder and national under -19 coach Hubern Evans (3-12), Paul Wintz (3-16) and Hussain 2-15.
At the Port Mourant Cricket Club ground, the home team suffered a 68-run loss to Albion in their fixture, which ensured the latter ended the preliminary round as group leaders.
Winning the toss and batting first, Albion rattled up 120-7 from their 20 overs with Shastri Persaud leading the way with 34. Imran Khan supported him with 28 as Rajendra Latcha took 2-21 and Rajendra Bolo 2-23.
In reply, Port Mourant failed to negotiate the bowling of Ramnarine Chattergoon (2-12), Asraf Ghanie (2-10), national left arm orthodox bowler Veerasammy Permaul (2-12) and right arm leg spinner Devendra Bishu 92-13) and fell for a miserable 52.
At Cumberland, Police continued their winning ways with a 30- run victory over Bermine. Police won the toss and took first strike, making 144-9 from their 20 overs. Michael Newland led the lawmen’s arrest of the Bermine bowling as he clobbered 55 (3x6s; 2x4s). Albert Sinclair contributed 29 as Stephen Latcha (2-24) and Julian Moore 2-17 were the principal wicket takers for Bermine.
Sinclair returned to take 5-17 to lead the lawmen’s rout of Bermine as they were bowled out for 114 with one ball to spare. Maxie DeJonge continues to lead the Bermine batting as he made 36 with Reeaz Kassim contributing 28. Zaheer Moakan supported Sinclair with 2-25.
Kildonan continues to struggle in this format of the game as they went down to Skeldon by four wickets in their game that was reduced to 16 overs because of rain.
Batting first, Kildonan made 105 all out from their allotted overs with only Jairam Beepi’s 41 being the lone batsman to offer resistance to the Skeldon bowling. Junior Blair took 2-13 and Sherwin Murray 2-25 for Skeldon which made 106-6 from 15.3 overs in reply.
Colin France and Murray led the batting with 27 apiece for their team with Devendra Thakurdeen (2-19) being the principal wicket taker for Kildonan.
In another rain reduced game, West Berbice beat Rose Hall Community Centre by 28 runs in a game that was reduced to 10 overs because of rain.
Being asked to take first strike, West Berbice made 79-4 from their overs with Carlston Nurse 35 being the top batsman. Balram Samaroo took 3-5 from two overs.
In reply, Rose Hall were held to 51-9 from their allotted overs with Samaroo and Sanjay Khan being the leading batsmen with 16 runs each. Pacer Kenroy Henry took 3-18 and received worthy support from Kenje Sedoc 2-2 and Krisendat Ramoo 2-4.
Two first round matches will be played this Friday that will decide the other two semi finalists from the county. The key matchup will be a zone A clash between West Berbice and Blairmont at Bush Lot with the winner guaranteeing themselves a certain place in the final four.
In zone B, Port Mourant will host Kildonan. Should Port Mourant win this game, they will be locked on points with Rose Hall Town Windies Sports Bar, but will still advance having came out on top in their head to head clash.
