East Coast Demerara Sub-Association and their Georgetown counterparts concluded the preliminary rounds of the NALICO/NAFICO-sponsored Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) Under-15 Inter-Association 50 overs cricket competition with contrasting wins yesterday.
East Coast Demerara enjoyed an easy day in the field yesterday when they defeated West Demerara by five wickets while defending champions Georgetown romped to a massive 99-run win over East Bank, the same team they will meet in the final today.
Playing at the Everest Cricket Club ground, Camp Road, East Coast won the toss and invited West Demerara to take first strike on a flat wicket, a move that paid dividends early as none of the batsmen showed any resistance to the bowling of spinner Arif Habib who took 3-7.
He received support from Yogindra Dass (2-10) and Rayon Morgan (2-4).
In reply, East Coast made heavy weather of their target, but still managed to win by five wickets with the inform Brian Sattaur continuing to display signs of maturity with an accomplished 20. Anand Persaud displayed a never- say-die attitude with the ball when he took 3-12.
G’town maul East Bank
At the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground, Bourda, defending champions Georgetown showed why they are champions with an accomplished 99-run mauling of East Bank.
Winning the toss and inviting their opponents to take first strike, East Bank would have relished making that decision when they got the wicket of Sunil Rupee who was brilliantly caught by Pernell London at cover from a drive that had four written all over it.
He departed with the score reading 34-1 from 7.3 overs, but some responsible batting from Jahron Byron and Safraz Esau who both made 33 with the latter being undefeated, helped restore some pride to the defending champions’ batting.
Chanderpaul Hemraj lent support with an attractive 21 as Georgetown made 181-5 from their 50 overs. Bowling for East Bank, Jason Vantull (1-20), Jagdesh Bishun (1-22), Deonarine Ramsaroop (1-27) and Mark Anthony 1-36 were the wicket takers.
Despite the valiant efforts of Bishun (23), the East Bank batsmen had no answers to the bowling of Amir Khan who continued to impress with the ball, this time claiming 3-6 to follow-up his 2-32 and 4-17 against East Coast and West Demerara respectively.
He received worthy support from Kevin Ogle (2-10) and Cross 2-25 as Georgetown seeks to retain back-to-back titles this year.
The final will be played today at GCC between Georgetown and East Bank from 09:30h. Prior to the start of the match, both teams will be met by Shivraj Singh, the manager of Life Administration at NALICO.
