By Delvon Mc Ewan
Discarded West Indies players Veersammy Permaul and Narsingh Deonarine were the dominant force behind a successful first day for Berbice in their Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) senior Inter-County four-day match against Essequibo.
Permaul claimed 5-24 to wreck Essequibo innings to 173 all out in 47.1 overs while Deonarine was unbeaten on 43 at the close of play at the small Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground in Queenstown.
After being inserted, Essequibo slumped from a strong position of 106-2 to their eventual total as Permaul made batting difficult for the lads from the Cinderella County.
The left-arm orthodox spinner regained form after a sloppy performance against Demerara in the first round at Bourda and was accurate throughout most of his 20 overs.
Permaul was supported by Devon Clements who claimed 2-25.
As he did against the Development team, Ricardo Adams blasted his way past 50 top scoring for Essequibo with 62.
His innings lasted 60 balls and contained nine fours and two sixes before he was stumped by
Anthony Bramble off the part-time off spin of Clements. Ricardo Adams received support from number three batsman Ricardo Peters (38), who added 66 for the second wicket with opener Royan Fredericks (30).
Berbice suffered two early losses in their reply as first round century maker Kandasammy Surujnarine was caught off Mark Tyrell’s bowling for five and Clements was given out leg before wicket (lbw) to the in-form Essequibo skipper Anthony Adams for 13. Those two dismissals paved the way for an early entry for Deonarine, who joined forces with Seon Hetmyer and the two stabilized Berbice’s innings until Hetmyer was removed for 37 by Royan Fredericks.
At the close Berbice were 130-3 from 40 overs still 43 runs from surpassing Essequibo’s first innings total. When play resumes today at 10 a.m, Deonarine and his overnight partner Jonathan Foo (13) will have a chance to extend their team’s first innings score and their individual scores.
Both teams made changes to their lineups, Essequibo brought in Keon Davis and Keanu Harry for Shivindra Hemraj and Parmanesh Parsotan while Berbice made three changes. Gudakesh Motie-Kanhai, Seon Hetmyer and Romario Shepherd were included while Royston Crandon, Jason Sinclair and Steven Latcha were left out.
Crandon’s omission was due to a breach in the code of conduct. The Berbician all-rounder disregard level two rule 2.3 of the players code of conduct which states; if a player engages in inappropriate or deliberate physical contact with another player during the course of play, action should be taken against him.
In his case he was reported by the match officials after the match between Demerara and Berbice for inappropriate contact to Shemroy Barrington, who was fielding at short leg at the time.
He pleaded guilty to the charge and was imposed with a one match ban for his action.
Meanwhile at the Everest Cricket Club Ground, Demerara is in control against the Steven Jacobs-led Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Development Team.
Replying to the 153 all out made by the Development Team, Demerara were 134-3 when play ended on day one. Trevon Griffith (53) has followed up his first round century with a well-composed 50 while Robin Bacchus (20) and Rajendra Chandrika (26), who made a double century against Berbice last week got starts.
The other first round centurion and skipper Vishal Singh was unbeaten on six with Amir Khan, who will join Singh at the commencement of the second day’s play on 15.
Jacobs has prized two of the three wickets that has fallen while Steven Sankar took the other.
Earlier, the Development Team did not settle against the medium pace of Christopher Barnwell, as the national limited overs captain collected 4-48. Barnwell’s effort was accompanied by Amir Khan and Raj Nanan, who collected two wickets each.
Shimron Hetmyer top scored for the Development Team with 41 while David Latchaya and Sankar got 34 and 24 respectively.
