Guyana and West Indies youth opening batsman Shimron Hetmeyer slammed a century to lead Young Warriors to a convincing six-wicket victory in their final preliminary round match against Tucber Park in the Bobby Deonarine/ Tom Gruntzel/Tenelec Inc., round-robin limited overs first division competition.
In a must-win match for the victors played at the picturesque Cumberland Cricket Ground, the Guyana Jags batsman smoked nine fours and six sixes in scoring 118 as his team steamrolled their opponents.
Tucber Park won the toss and batted. Their openers, former national youth batsmen Anthony D’Andrade (65) and Joemal LaFleur (40), raced to an opening stand of 63 in eight overs before LaFleur was dismissed. Berbice senior all-rounder Devon Clements joined D’Andrade and the two added 55 runs for the second wicket before the former was lbw to Seon Hetmyer (2-46) for 30. The run-rate slowed as Young Warriors spinners took control, removing Hakeem Hinds (3) and Eugene LaFleur (13) who was caught off former West Indies U19 and senior national player Gajanand Singh.
Things fell away when Tucber Park lost their top-scorer D’Andrade, Keon Dejesus (11), Niall Smith (00) and Romario Shepherd (20) and they ended on 194 all out in 47.5 of their allotted 50 overs. Former national youth all-rounder Linden Austin ended with 3-43 and current national U19 all-rounder Kassim Khan grabbed 2 for 23.
Young Warriors began their chase with the younger Hetmyer and Maxie DeJonge (31) putting on a century opening stand.
The 100 came up in the 22nd over before Young Warriors lost their first wicket at 122 when DeJonge was dismissed.
However, Hetmyer continued along with Former Berbice youth batsman Waheid Edwards (16) who helped take the score to 170. Young Warriors then suffered a slight hiccup when they lost Singh for a duck and Hetmyer.
Former national youth batsmen Kevin Ramdeen and Seon Hetmyer then saw the home scoring 12 and six not out respectively.
Former national youth pacer Niall Smith finished with 3-55. Young Warriors will play their playoff game at the Cumberland ground Sunday while Tucber Park, who ended as the runners up in the group also qualified for the next round.
