A superb bowling display from right arm off spinner Ricardo Devers (4-14) along with fast bowler Andre Stoll (3-9) backed by a responsible unbeaten innings of 35 from Dayanand Roopnarine guided Georgetown to a comfortable six-wicket victory over East Bank yesterday.
This was the final of the Demerara Cricket Board /Gizmos and Gadgets/GT&T-sponsored Under-17 Inter-Association competition which took place at Everest Cricket Club ground.
Asked to take first strike on a good batting wicket in a game which was reduced to 30 overs-a-side due to a soggy outfield, East Bank found the bowling of Stoll who rocked them first followed by Devers too much to handle and folded for a paltry 69 from 28.1 overs, to which Georgetown replied with 70-4 form 16.4 overs.
Only Pernell London who made 18 and Vickram Balkarran batting at number 11 with 10, were able to get into double figures as Stoll and Devers aided by strong fielding support from their team mates, including captain and wicketkeeper Dexter Solomon who effected four dismissals including three stumpings, ripped the heart out of their batting.
London and Khemraj Singh revived their team’s innings with a partnership of 22 for the second wicket following the early loss of skipper Shameer Fazal for a first ball duck to Stoll, then Balkarran and Cornell London, the elder brother of Pernell, added a further 19 for the final wicket.
But all this was not good enough as their total of 69 proved to be inadequate in the face of the strong Georgetown batting line-up.
Their innings got off to a contrasting start as opener Quincy Ovid struck the first delivery from fast bowler Jason Henry over midwicket for three. However, he saw his partner Kamal Ramkissoon being bowled off the very next delivery.
Ovid and Roopnarine then added 44 runs for the second wicket form 10.5 overs, with Ovid hitting the first boundary of the match over extra cover off Asif Ishak’s bowling at the end of the second over which pushed the score to 12-1.
Roopnarine then followed suit when he hit Devendra Deosarran all along the ground twice for boundaries in successive overs, but lost Ovid who was adjudged lbw to Deosarran for 15 at 47-2.
Two quick wickets fell to off spinner Jagdesh Bishun (2-14), the younger brother of Guyana/TCL under-19 off spinner Totaranm Bishun, soon after to leave Georgetown perched on 56-4, but Solomon joined Roopnarine and saw his team home, hitting the winning run over midwicket off Pernell London at 16:10hrs.
Devers was named the Man-of-the-Match and received a trophy for his achievements.
Apart from their winners trophy, the Georgetown Under-17 side also received $60,000, courtesy of president of the Georgetown Cricket Association Bish Panday.
And Devers and Solomon each received a bat for their superlative individual efforts which enabled Georgetown to win the competition.
Meanwhile, the DCB junior selection panel has announced a 30-man squad for trials at the same venue beginning from 09:00hrs today and tomorrow. This trial is being used to select the Demerara team to participate in the Guyana Cricket Board/Clico-sponsored under-17 Inter-County Two-day competition that is set to commence next Saturday. Berbice are the defending champions in this tournament.
The 30-man squad reads: Kamal Ramkissoon, Quincy Ovid, Rajiv Singh, Brian Sattaur, Delroy Charles, Shameel Fazal, Ameer Khan, Delon Fernandes, Dayanand Roopnarine, Dexter Solomon, Kerwin Bennett, Arif Habib, Carlos La Rose, Keon Franklyn, Ricardo Devers, Amir Khan, Shaquille Williams, Jagdesh Bishun, Noorandra Jaigobin, Amir Mohammed, Darryl Ross, Maha Dhanpaul, Raj Nanan, Kwame Cross, Keon Ogle, Khemraj Singh, Seon Daniels, Royston Simon, Vishal Narayan and Andre Stoll.
