Essequibo on Tuesday recorded a massive 148-run victory over the President’s XI despite Tagenarine Chanderpaul’s maiden limited overs century as the final round of the Guyana Cricket Board’s senior Inter County one day tournament ended at the Demerara Cricket Club ground.
Apart from scoring the first and only century of the competition, Chanderpaul, son of West Indies middle order batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, also had the distinction of carrying his bat throughout the innings, feats which helped earn him the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the tournament award.
Batting first upon being sent in, Essequibo got off to a powerful start as Royan and Norman Fredericks put on 120 in 20 overs before Joshua Wade finally made a break through by dismissing Royan for 62 from 51 balls, an innings studded with four fours and three sixes.
Norman Fredericks carried on in a partnership with Dillon Heyliger which yielded 89 in just 94 balls before Norman was bowled by Elton Baker in the 37th over for 75.
He faced 111 balls and struck three sixes and an equal number of fours.
Heyliger kept the runs coming with powerful hitting smashing six sixes and two fours in his knock of 75 from 71 balls and after his departure, with the score on 285 in the 41st over, Ricardo Adams picked up the mantle and helped take the score to 296 before he was caught off the bowling of Baker for 50 in just 23 balls with five sixes.
Jason Heyliger scored a run-a-ball 21 with one six and one four to lift Essequibo to a massive 7 for 344 in 50 overs, easily the highest score of the tournament this year.
Bowling for the President Elton Baker took 3 for 51, Collis Butts 2 for 43, Brandon Bess 1 for 37 and Joshua Wade and Devon Clement 1 for 71 and 1 for 77 respectively.
The President’s XI lost wickets at crucial intervals to undermine their chase. Anthony Bramble opened the batting with Tagenarine Chanderpaul and the pair took the score to 21 before Bramble was lbw to Rupesh Motilall for 5. Kevon Boodie added 52 runs with Chanderpaul before he was dismissed by Anthony Adams for 26 (22 balls, 3X4,1X6) and the President’s XI lost Baker (5) and Devon Clement (12) with the score on 95 and 112 respectively.
Despite the clutter of wickets falling at the other end the teenage Chanderpaul continued to score fluently, hitting a six off a Ricardo Adams free hit to bring up his half century in 69 balls. Chanderpaul and Jeetendra Sookdeo put together 38 runs for the fifth wicket, with Sookdeo batting aggressively for 19 before Anthony Adams pulled off a good catch at mid off during the batting powerplay to reduce the President’s XI to 5 for 148.
The next three wickets fell for the addition of just 10 runs as Jason Heyliger struck repeatedly with his off breaks, but Chanderpaul remained unnerved as he moved into the 90s with a six over mid wicket.
He brought up the ton, his first in his first season of senior Inter-County cricket, off 161 balls with a pulled four over square leg, but his knock could not prevent his team from going down by 148 runs as they closed on 8 for 196 in 50 overs. Chanderpaul finished on 103 not out from 167 deliveries with 13 fours and 3 sixes and Brandon Bess was not out 17.
Bowling for Essequibo Jason Heyliger took 3 for 24, Anthony Adams 1 for 22, Ricardo Adams 1 for 25, Rupesh Motilall 1 for 25 and Herry Green 1 for 42.
