Cellink Berbice added another title to their growing collection when they hoisted the Under-17 Inter-County trophy yesterday; defeating Demerara by five wickets at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground.
The victory came on the shoulders of Shailendra Shameer, scoring his third successive half century of the tournament while he shared an unbeaten 84-run sixth wicket partnership with Sharaz Ramcharran. That alliance propelled Cellink Berbice to 172-5 from 46.1 overs, responding to Demerara’s 167 all out from 50 overs.
Demerara, early in their innings, were pegged down by some probing spin bowling from former national under-15 left arm spin bowler Gudakesh Motie and Shameer. Tagenarine Chanderpaul (53), Dexter George (38*) and Kamal Savory (20), however, were able put their heads down to lead their team from total disaster.
Chanderpaul’s knock had four fours and two sixes in it.
Cellink Berbice, in reply, were one time precariously poised at 88-5 in 26.1 overs, losing the wickets of Nick Ramsaroop (19), Shimron Hetmyer (23), Viendra Gooniah (0), Quacy McPherson (17) and Arif Chan (16), but Shameer, who was later was named Man-of-the Match, and Ramcharran (22), came to the rescue. Parvinderlall Persaud (3-26) was the most successful bowler for Demerara while Steven Sankar had 1-18.
Meanwhile, at the presentation ceremony, Chairman of the junior selectors, Nazimul Drepaul, announced a 20-man squad that will commence encampment at the Chetram Singh Centre of Excellence.
The full squad reads: Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Ricardo Peters, Shimron Hetmyer, Kemo Paul, Shailendra Shameer, Mark Gonsalves, Arif Chan, Kamal Savory, Akashaya Persaud, Gudakesh Motie Kanhai, Steven Sankar, Dexter George, Bernard Bailey, Sharaz Ramcharran, Devon George, Shivindra Hemraj, Danile Lewis, Nail Smith, Michael Salim, and Quacy McPherson. The Coach is Gavin Nedd, while Alvin Johnson is the Manager.
