Rocky XI and Country Side XI booked their places in the semi-finals of the Guyana Softball League (GSL) organized Banks DIH-15-overs-a-side softball tournament after they defeated La Jalousie Estate XI and Boom Blast XI respectively in the remaining quarter-finals at the Thirst Park ground recently.
In the first match Rocky XI thrashed La Jalousie by a massive 169 runs.
They won the toss and elected to bat and amassed 253 – 3 in 15 overs.
They were in trouble early on losing opening batsman Amrit ‘Rocky” Jairam in the first over for one but under-19 hopeful Balbinder Persaud and Azad Azeez took the score to 47 after three overs with some gigantic sixes.
Azeez fell for 18 with the score still on 47 but in came Asif Ahmad who, along with Persaud, continued the onslaught as Rocky XI raced to 132 after seven overs.
Persaud, who was dropped on 60, then mistimed a drive and was caught in the covers off the bowling of Mohen Mohamadeen for 81 (3x4s, 10x6s) while Persaud and Asif Ahmad were left unbeaten on 83 and 54 runs respectively.
Bisham Dhanraj took 1-41 from three overs for La Jalousie who struggled in reply and were eventually dismissed for 84 in 12.5 overs.
Rohan Harrinarine (19) was the only batsman for La Jalousie who got into double figures as the unreadable Davendra Khusial removed the first four La Jalousie batsmen for 16 runs.
Ramesh Rambharose chipped in with 1 – 8.
In the second match Country Side fought all the way to the end to defeat Boom Blast by 20 runs.
Country Side batted first and posted 180-6 in their 15 overs after being 97-5 from nine overs.
Former national under-19 opening batsman Krishna Deosarran made 45 and took 28 runs from a Sunil Persaud over who eventually got his revenge by dismissing Deosarran while Kumar Bishundial made an unbeaten 42 for Country Side.
Boom Blast in reply were off to a terrific start reaching 28 – 0 after three overs.
They then lost Ritchie ‘Tsunami’ Reddy in the fourth over to Roy Seebarran for 14.
The fall of that wicket, coupled with some accurate bowling eventually slowed the run rate down.
Boom Blast eventually were able to blast off in the last five overs but unfortunately fell short by 20 runs reaching 160-8 in 15 overs.
Rocky XI will now face Rangers XI and Country Side XI will face Regal XI in the semi-finals to be played on Thursday at Banks DIH ground, Thirst Park, commencing at 5:30pm.
