A blazing 47 from Travis Drakes along with Kemo Paul’s fifty and Akene Adams’ four wickets piloted Essequibo to a commanding three-wicket win over Berbice in round two of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/Raj Singh Insurance Brokers U19 50 over tournament played at the Everest Ground yesterday.
Paul, the West Indies U19 all-rounder struck 10 fours and one six in his 69 and was later adjudged Man of the match for his innings.
The aggressive Drakes smoked 47 from 36 balls with five monster sixes and two fours as the Cinderella County boys sped to 224 for 7, easily gunning down their target of 218 in 48.2 overs.
Spinner Balchand Baldeo ended with 3-59 from his eight overs while his other mates grabbed one wicket each. Kassim Khan smashed a quick-fire 54 from 32 balls with five huge sixes and four fours while opener Balchand Baldeo (33), West Indies U19 batsman Shimron Hetmyer (31) and Zachary Persaud (20), contributed to Berbice’s total.
Adams, who picked up four wickets against the U17 team, bagged 4-32 from his 10 overs, taking his overall tally to 19 wickets in this year’s inter-county tournament. Support came from Loaknauth Chinkoo (3-34) and the surprisingly expensive Keanu Harry who picked up two wickets but conceded 45 runs from his four overs.
Grisean Grant bowled Parmesh Parsotam for eight a few overs before lunch but Paul and Persaud kept things steady heading into lunch. Resuming on 25-1, the pair batted maturely as they took their team score past the 100 run mark.
Paul brought up his 50 off 72 balls and progressed but Persaud was a bit hasty at times and it led to his downfall as he found himself short of the crease attempting a run, bringing the 112-run partnership to an end.
David Williams was then bowled by Khan for duck while Baldeo bagged the big wicket of Paul who was caught behind the first ball off the spinner’s fifth over, leaving the score 137 for 4. Drakes and Sachin Persaud (06) forged a mini attack with the former being the aggressor, smashing a few sixes off the slower bowlers before Ramdhan disturbed the stumps of the latter, bringing his painstaking 25-ball innings to an end.
Drakes continued his power hitting with a few more lusty blows off the slower bowlers a few of which ventured out of the Everest ground as his teammates could be heard cheering him on from the sidelines.
Neiland Cadogan (18) joined in on the fun hitting a few big sixes of his own which took Essequibo well past the 200 mark. Drakes and Cadogan departed but Essequibo were well over the line needing just three runs for a win and got over the line when Harry struck Grant for a six to seal an emphatic win for his team.
After losing Leon Andrews cheaply during their batting innings earlier in the day, Hetmyer who struck six crisp fours and Baldeo, who hit two fours and one six, added 76 for the second wicket before Adams removed both batsmen. Samuel Kishnasammy (00), Clifton Lindie (10), Daniel Lewis (02) and Parmanand Ramdhan (18) were removed cheaply courtesy of Adams and Chinkoo respectively.
But Khan, Retesh Umroa (16) and Persaud staged a fight-back as they took in on some poor back-end bowling from the Essequibians. After bringing up his brisk fifty, Harry had Khan and Persaud comprehensively bowled while Adams had Umroa trapped leg before wicket, leaving Grant stranded on 4.
