Anthony Adams produced a mean spell of spin bowling while national under – 19 captain Ronaldo Ali-Mohamed blasted an unbeaten 30 in a combined effort to hand the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) a commanding five-wicket win over the Police Sports Club in the second semi-final of the Georgetown Cricket Association, Carib Beer T20 tournament at the GCC ground, Bourda yesterday.
GCC, after completing victory with three overs to spare, will battle against old foes the Demerara Cricket Club on a date to be decided.
GCC, after winning the toss, invited Police to take the first strike.
The lawmen were well placed at the ending of the first power play with the score on 46 for two with Andrew Lyght (jnr) (1), bowled by Ronsford Beaton in the first over and Alex Algoo (5), the other batsman to be dismissed.
A couple of boundaries, however, came off the bat of Mark Gonsalves who slapped a delivery from Ali-Mohammed through the cover region and boldly hooked a steamy Beaton to the fence as the score ticked along.
Danger man Ricardo Adams (5) though, failed to get going after seamer Joshua Wade found the outside edge of his bat in the seventh over to leave the score on 49 – 3.
The score moved to 55 for four when left-arm spinner Adams removed Gonsalves for (25) which left Police in a bit of wobble.
The lawmen continued to struggle in the middle overs as spinners Adams (2-8) and Raj Nana (0- 15) kept things tight from their combined eight overs which left the score on 84 for five with five overs remaining.
Beaton (2-41) and Wade (2-31) leaked the odd boundary in the latter overs which enabled Police to post 131 for seven at the end of their allotted 20 overs on the back of an unbeaten 32-run, eight-wicket partnership between Lennox Andrews (20) and Stephen Harris (13).
GCC, in reply, raced to 51 -1 at the end of the first power play.
Robin Bacchus (25), laced several badly lined deliveries from off-spinner Jason Heyliger to the point boundary before Heyliger had his revenge in the fourth over.
The score moved to 54 in the seventh over when Harris removed skipper Leon Johnson (10) to add another interesting twist to the game.
A timely little partnership then developed between Martin Pestano-Belle and Khemraj Jaikarran to carry the host to 79 – 2 at the halfway point.
Pestano- Belle was the aggressor, smashing Harris over his head for four while easing Ricardo Adams through the covers for another boundary.
The duo continued to push the partnership along before Jaikarran (22) was removed by Kelvin Leitch with the score 82 – 3 in the 11th over.
Number five batsman Ali-Mohamed announced himself by easing a delivery from Heyliger over the midwicket boundary for six to bring the equation down to 39 runs from seven overs.
The right-hander then cracked a delivery from Leitch through point for four then nonchalantly pushed another delivery into the Rohan Kanhai stand to display his wide array of shots.
The match came to an end with a flurry of boundaries and a number of dropped catches as GCC reached 132 – five from 17 over. Ali-Mohamed ended unbeaten on 30 while Pestano-Belle, who added much-needed impetus to the chase, made 23.
Harris finished with 2 for 23 from his four overs while Heyliger, Leitch and an unlucky Raun Johnson grabbed a wicket each.
