A collective bowling effort from the Demerara bowlers enabled them to seize control over the Under-17 Select XI on the rain affected opening day of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) U19 Inter-County three-day tourney played at Wales.
On a day when rain affected nearly half of the opening day in round one, it only took 39.2 overs for Demerara to steamroll the U17 lads for a measly 90 with Bhaskar Yadram (18) and Sagar Hatheramani (16), the top scorers.
Seamers Samuel McKenzie (2-8), Kelvin Shewpersaud (2-16), Sherfane Rutherford (2-14), off-spinner Malcom Hubbard (2-6) and a wicket each from skipper Travis Persaud and Ronaldo AliMohammed topped off sterling performances with the ball for Demerara.
At stumps Demerara were 25 for 1, trailing their opponents by 65 runs with Rutherford (02) and Ronaldo Renee (23). During the chase Demerara lost opener Raymond Perez who was adjudged lbw off the bowling of Nedd for duck.
Ronaldo Renee on the other hand was aggressive thumping the first two balls off Barlow for consecutive fours. He continued his assault when he smashed spinner Kevin Sinclair for back to back fours before the rain stopped play at 4:59pm.
Earlier, when play began at 13:32hrs, U17 openers Yadram (18) and Javed Karim (13) were watchful against the opening bowlers, as the dark clouds hovered over the ground. Demerara were a bit sloppy in the field, giving Karim three lives, after he was first dropped by the wicket-keeper Renee while Ramnarine Chatura accounted for the other two catches.
Shewpersaud then did what his teammates struggled to do and served up a good full-length delivery to have Karim trapped lbw as the U17’s
lost their first wicket for 21. New batsman Joshua Persaud (04) came off the mark with a four while Yadram pounced on two loose deliveries, cracking back-to-back fours off AliMohamed. Demerara skipper Persaud took off a good catch at short-cover to remove his namesake Persaud as Shewpersaud picked up his second scalp which quickly took the score from 22-1 to 29-2. Things went from bad to worse for the youngsters who lost Yadram, flashing wildly at AliMohammed who broke his edge as the wicket-keeper
held onto a good catch.
Berbician Sinclair fell cheaply for 12 off the bowling of McKenzie but U17’s had still manage to reach their 50 after the 18 overs. Kurt Lovell was trapped leg before wicket for two by Rutherford while McKenzie returned for another spell to bag the wicket of Alphius Bookie (05).
Left-arm spinner Ashmead Nedd was bowled by his Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) teammate Rutherford for a duck to leave the U17 61 for 7 at tea.
Hatheramani who showed good form with the bat this inter-county season, smacked the only six for his team before he attempted a shimmy down the track, only to be stumped by the keeper. Hubbard knocked over Kelvin Umroa (03) while Barlow was removed by Persaud for duck to bring the U17 first innings to a close.
Over at Enterprise, Essequibo batting first were 71 for 2 after 26.3 overs when their match began at 15:00hrs due to rain. Skipper Keemo Paul unbeaten on 25 and Sachin Persaud 08. Nathan Persaud 22 and Mark Williams (06) were the batsmen dismissed.
The match continues today at 9:30hrs.
