W/B’ce mauls E/Coast, U/Corentyne edges W/Demerara

—Penultimate round of GCB Franchise League One Day tournament

Demetri Cameron (3-58) and Clinton Pestano (3-31) ensured West Demerara were bowled out.
Demetri Cameron (3-58) and Clinton Pestano (3-31) ensured West Demerara were bowled out.

In the penultimate round of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) 50-overs Franchise League, West Berbice hammered East Coast Demerara by 137 runs while West Demerara fell short by seven runs in their contest against Upper Corentyne despite a `four-for’ by Akshaya Persaud and half century from Tagenarine Chanderpaul yesterday.

West Berbice found their ‘A’ Game in a convincing win over East Coast Demerara at Bush Lot, West Berbice. West Berbice won the toss and took first strike. They raced to 200 all out with the Under-19 players scoring the bulk of the runs. Man-of-the-Match, Javed Karim, continued his rich vein of form, smashing 66 with three fours and two sixes while Seon Glasgow clobbered 45 with four fours and one six. The two batsmen came together with West Berbice struggling at 34-3 in the eighth over and by the time they departed in the 30th over, West Berbice had raced to 121.

The pair shared a stand of 81 runs.

Zaman Moakan presents Man-of-the-Match Tagenarine Chanderpaul, who carried his bat throughout the innings with his award.

East Coast were especially sloppy, giving away 32 extras.

Ramnarine Chatura took 3-30 from seven overs and Bhaskar Yadram 2-44.

In reply, East Coast made heavy weather of the chase with only two batsmen reaching double figures as Keon Joseph and Kevin Jawahir destroyed the imposing batting order.

Joseph, recently recovered from an injury, was especially impressive, bowling with good pace and line to have six maidens in his eight overs with only two runs scored. He also claimed three wickets while Jawahir took 2-7 from his four overs. Brian Sattaur scored 15 and Amir Khan, 14.

Meanwhile, at Port Mourant, Upper Corentyne scored 180 runs from 45 overs. They then managed to restrict West Demerara to 173 in 44.4 overs of the nail-biting affair.

Playing on a ground with a rough outfield, Upper Corentyne won the toss and elected to bat.

Alex Algoo and Trevor Ramsarran added 45 runs for the opening stand before Mahendra Dhanpaul, bowling from the bottom end against the breeze, zipped a delivery past the inner edge of Algoo’s bat to make the break through. The delivery sent Algoo’s stumps cartwheeling several feet back and ended his stand of 21 from 36 balls with three fours, signalling the end of the powerplay. West Demerara could have had the second wicket soon after but Safraz Esau dropped a chance from Joshua Ramsammy on 12.

However, Raymon Reifer accounted for the wicket of Ramsarran and skipper Persaud made up for the blunder to pull off a stunning return catch off his own bowling. He followed that effort up by another near perfect delivery to bowl Jonathan Rampersaud. 

The established Anthony Bramble opened his account with two flicks to the square leg boundary before cutting to point in the next delivery, however, Persaud had the final laugh trapping him leg before wicket with the ‘chinaman delivery’.

Clinton Pestano brought up the team’s century with a six to the long off boundary, followed by a four before Richie Looknauth made up for the mistake, bringing the ball closer to Pestano and eventually enticing him to hold out to long on. Pestano and Shawn Perreira made valuable contributions with 19 and 21 respectively but it was a responsible innings from Eon Hooper that brought Upper Corentyne back in the contest. Persaud was once again the one to make the break through, drawing him out of his crease for Tevin Imlach to sharply stump him for 41 from 60 balls.

Persaud ended with 4-38 while Dhanpaul and Looknauth returned 2-44 and 2-36

Man-of-the-Match Javed Karim receives his trophy from match referee Moses Ramnarine.

respectively.

In the chase, Tagenarine Chanderpaul played throughout the innings, facing 139 deliveries for his unbeaten 84 with six fours, one of which was a scoop over the wicketkeeper off of Pestano’s no ball. His opening partner, Imlach, looked solid with this three boundaries but had his stumps uprooted by 20-year-old seamer, Demitri Cameron. Pestano made two quick breakthroughs, hitting Persaud on his forearm before having him edge to Bramble behind the stumps and then pulling off a stunning one-handed catch off his own bowling to end Reifer’s innings. Rampersaud also made a pair of inroads to reduce West Demerara to 45-5.

With Chanderpaul losing partners, Malcom Hubbard, coming in at number nine, provided a solid 40 with seven fours and upped the scoring rate with a 64-run partnership from 50 balls. The equation was brought down to 27 from six overs with one wicket remaining.

Pestano, with ball in hand, overstepped twice and was not spared by Chanderpaul who struck him for three fours in the over. However a single that placed Aaron Seepersaud on strike and he was comprehensively bowled by Pestano.

Pestano ended with 3-31 and Cameron 3-58.