Cornelia Ida battled their way to the top at the Leonora Jamaat ground this past Sunday to become the champions of the West Indian Sports Inter-Jamaat Softball Tournament which was organized by the Leonora Muslim Youth Organization (LMYO) in association with the Guyana Softball League (GSL).
LMYO ‘A’, ‘B’ , ‘C’, Ruby Jamaat, Uitvlugt Masjid and Cornelia Ida Masjid were the six teams that competed in the one-day eight over competition, and the eventual champions were able to record a five-wicket victory over Ruby in the final.
Cornelia Ida concluded a successful chase in the final which was a ten-over affair to defeat Ruby Masjid who chose to bat first and made 102-5 in their ten overs with Mohamed Ghanie slamming 35 as Ameer Khan picked up 2-20 for Cornelia Ida.
Cornelia Ida who struggled initially at the beginning of their chase, got their game together and weathered the storm to reach 104–5 from 9.3 overs. Shazim Richardson led the way with his man-of-the-match performance of 41 and was supported by Ishmael Ali with an unbeaten 21.
Alim Bacchus (2-15) and Raheem Ali (1-3) were the most successful bowlers for Ruby.
Earlier in the first round, Ruby trashed LMYO ‘B’ by 76 runs after batting first and posting a total of 129-5 in 8 overs. Alim Bacchus contributed an unbeaten 33 and was supported by Nizam Ghanie with 15 as Sulaiman Hussain grabbed 2-12 for LYMO “B” who could only muster 53 in their eight overs, losing eight wickets in the process with Tazeem Pooran making 21 against the bowling of Raheem Ali who took 2-12.Javed Ali led the way with a splendid 42 when LMYO “A” batted first against Uitvlugt and registered a score of 108-4 in eight overs while Altaf Khan bagged 2-21 for Uitvlugt who stumbled to 74- 7 in reply from their allotted overs, even as Amir Khan (24) tried to put up some resistance during their innings as Zulfikar Ayube finished with 2-8 for LMYO ‘A’. A mammoth 148 was posted by Cornelia Ida who batted first and lost three wickets in the eight overs they faced when they clashed with Leonora MYO “C” and defeated them by 67 runs.
Khalid Mohammed top scored with 42 against the bowling of Tariq Mohamed who picked up 2-19 for LYMO ‘C’ who made 81 in eight overs for the loss of six wickets in their reply as Ricky Bacchus (3-13) was the most successful bowler for Cornelia Ida.
Cornelia Ida were invited to take first strike against LMYO “A” and reached 78-7 from their eight overs. Tauheer Ali (18) top scored for Cornelia Ida as Abrahim Ali grabbed 3-30 bowling for LMYO ‘A’.
In reply LMYO “A” came agonizingly close, making 77-8 in eight overs but Shazim Richardson and Ricky Bacchus restricted their scoring, both grabbing two wickets each for 13 and 10 runs respectively.
Shazim Richardson of Cornelia Ida won the man-of-the–match award while Raheem Ali of Ruby Masjid took the best all-rounder award of the tournament.
