Rangers Sports Club defeated Zeeburg Warriors to be the first team to enter the national quarterfinal round of the Guyana Softball League organized Trophy Stall 15-Over countrywide competition.
They now await their opponents who will be the winner of the Berbice zone with Scotsburg United due to take on the Orealla Champions and Fyrish Youths led by former Stanford twenty/20 star Imran Khan taking on Siparuta Champions this weekend.
RSC won the toss and elected to take first strike scoring a modest 122 all out in 14.1 overs before restricting the opposition to 120 runs in 13.2 overs.
Riaz Karim led the way with a top score of 46 which included five sixes and a four and he was supported by Diaram Persaud’s 18 in a partnership worth 44 off 32 balls.
In the quest to post a challenging total Rangers encountered a hiccup when they lost five wickets for 12 runs against the accurate bowling of Zeeburg’s Madhya Dhanpaul who took 4-13 and was supported by Balbinder Persaud (3-18). Warriors took to the crease and immediately found themselves two wickets down with only three runs on the board but Ganesh Narine (36) and Riaz Ali (18) saved Zeeburg some embarrassment as they eventually fell for 102. Rangers’ Asif Saffie was almost unplayable, finishing with 4-12 from his three overs and receiving firm support from Dhanraj Champalall with 3-10.
Meanwhile, reigning countrywide champions Regal XI who were due to take on the unbeaten Ariel XI will now have face them this weekend owing to the inclement weather which forced the match to be called off last weekend at the Eve Leary Sports Complex ground.
The other affected match between Trophy Stall XI who are also unbeaten and Farm Masjid was also postponed due to inclement weather and is to be rescheduled to a later date. The winner of this match-up will book a place in the super eights.
Currently on top in the Essequibo zone are the three unbeaten teams – Young Warriors, United Brothers and Die Hard XI – and they will be competing this weekend to decide the two teams that will advance to the quarterfinal.
