Lower Corentyne continued their unbeaten run after completing an impressive nine-wicket win over Georgetown when round two of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Jaguars Franchise League three-day tournament ended yesterday at Albion, Berbice.
Lower Corentyne, needing just 63 run to complete an outright win, got there comfortably after a flurry of boundaries from Kandasammy Surujnarine (24 not out) and form batsman John Foo (26 not out) helped them stroll to 65-1 from 9.5 overs.
Replying to Georgetown’s first innings 212, Lower Corentyne amassed 290-all out from 77.3 overs with Foo’s 127 being the highlight of their innings.
Knocks from Captain Veerasammy Permaul (39), Kandasammy Surujnarine (35), Sharaz Ramcharran (30 not out) and David Latchaya (29) proved crucial in the end.
Off-spinner Gajanan Suknanan returned with figures of 4-67 while left-arm spinner Devon Lord chipped in with 3-57 for the visitors.
Batting a second time, Georgetown was restricted to 140 all out with Permaul bagging 5-39. Opener Robin Bacchus played a stylish innings of 57 with nine fours and was supported by an aggressive 44 (4×3 6×3) from Captain Chris Barnwell.
Trailing by 78 runs, Georgetown lost opener Andrew Lyght Jr for a duck after he was given out, struck on the pads by fast-bowler Raun Johnson (2-34) who also removed Ovid Richardson (03) the same way.
With his side in trouble, Barnwell walked out and hammered Johnson for a pair of sixes, a four and a couple singles to take 18 runs off the over as Georgetown cleared the deficit.
Bacchus joined in on the action and played a few stylish strokes but Barnwell threw away the chance of a half century when he hit spinner Kassim Khan straight to Ramcharran at mid-on, the last ball before lunch.
Resuming on 81-3 after the interval, new batsman Kwame Crosse got off the mark with a four while Bacchus drove Khan through the off-side for a boundary to raise Georgetown’s 100.
Bacchus got to his 50 off 74 deliveries but shortly after Lower Corentyne pulled things back when Crosse was by caught by wicket-keeper Akeem Hinds off Ramcharran for seven.
A brief period of rain halted proceedings for a few minutes and when play restarted things crumbled for Georgetown after Permaul mopped up the tail.
Wicket-keeper Dexter Solomon (02), Bacchus, Suknanan (00), Kellon Carmichael (04) and Ronaldo Alimohammed (09) all fell to Permaul with Foo accounting for the last wicket of Lord (07).
Earlier, when play began Lower Corentyne resumed on 249-6 and got their extra two batting points when they scored their first run of the day to raise their 250.
Lord, who bowled the first over of the morning, failed to cling onto a return catch from overnight batsman Ramcharran but persistence and a bit of discipline from Barnwell (2-40) got him with the wicket of his opposite number.
Suknanan picked up where he left off on day two as he won an early lbw shout to get rid of Khan (02) before having Niall Smith (02) caught shortly after at leg-slip.
The last wicket to fall was Johnson (01) who was bowled by a beauty from Barnwell, completely squared up by a swinging delivery from the Georgetown skipper.
Lower Corentyne who entered the match with 19.4 points, picked up a few additional points.
They received two for batting, three for bowling, 0.1 for fast bowling and a whopping 12 points for the win which took their overall tally to 36.5 points.
