Albion and Blairmont advance to Semifinals.

 Leon Cecil
Leon Cecil

Albion and Blairmont Cricket Clubs booked their spots in the semi-finals of the Berbice Cricket Board/Mike’s Pharmacy Under-15 tournament after securing wins over Achievers and No. 73 respectively last week.

Albion, playing at home, took first strike and with a century from 14-year-old Leon Cecil reached 293-6 from their 50 overs. They then dismissed Achievers for an embarrassing 38 to seal victory by 255 runs.

Cecil, a solid right hander, carved five boundaries on his way to 104 while gaining support from Tavendra Mangal and Meaaz Khan with 54 and 25 runs respectively before leg spinner Pavendra Ganesh picked up 3-3 while off spinner Leon Cyril and medium pacer Naresh Veersammy both bagged 3-4. Meanwhile. Blairmont had to dig deep to defeat No. 73 Cricket Club by just three runs in a rain-affected game. Blairmont, had to pull out all the plugs to defeat No. 73 on their home turf after heavy rains in the early morning forced the match to be reduced to a 25 overs-per-side affair.

Blairmont, after losing the toss, was invited to bat first and was restricted to 64 all out in 18.1 overs. S. Rupnarine top scored with 17 while left arm spinner Rawl Jabbar took 5-19 runs off his five overs and Suraj Chatterpaul supported with 2-13 from five overs.

No. 73 suffered a major setback in the sixth over when one of their top batsman Vettori Latchman was dismissed for five but Abbas Khan (18) and Rawl Jabbar (12) battled against great odds.

However, a brilliant spell from medium pacer Vickendra Singh, caused them to fall short by three runs. Singh bowled with good pace and control to end with outstanding figures of 7-10 from 28 balls.