A five-wicket haul from Vedant Parwal followed up by a half-century from Saiteja Mukkamalla powered Tri-State into the final of the Georgetown Cricket Association/AYPCL Under-19 tournament after beating Malteenoes Sports Club by six wickets yesterday.
Play at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) was delayed by 90 minutes due to late showers and the setting up of the sight screen and the match was subsequently reduced to 45 overs per side.
In front of a decent crowd of cricket lovers, Malteenoes won the toss and elected to bat first, posting 133 all out in 41.1 overs.
The North American side in reply reached 136-4 in 41.3 overs.
Parwar, a right-arm fast-bowler, picked up 5-23, removing both openers, Tuen Hicks and Wayne McPherson cheaply.
However, Malteenoes resisted with Shamar Yearwood and Jeremiah Scott putting on 71 for the third wicket.
Yearwood, a national youth cricketer, uncharacteristically played a conservative innings with textbook-like shots along the ground that saw him scoring a boundary-less 27 from 73 balls before he was caught at mid-wicket to Chaitanaya Parwal.
Scott, unlike Yearwood showcased his flambouyant nature with a 57-ball 40 consisting of four boundaries but held out to Adil Shivakumar at cover, handing Vedant Parwal his fifth scalp with the score 95-6 in the 32nd over.
Malteenos were halted further as Chad Shivrattan (0) and Ntini Permaul (10) were both stumped in the same over to leg-spinner, Gautham Ravindran who finished with 4-34 after dismantling the lower order.
Elian White showed some resistance with an unbeaten 26 from 25 balls including a lone four through the covers and a massive six off of Ravindran.
In the chase, Malteenoes found themselves in a favourable position as they attempted to defend the relatively small total with Shivrattan making the breakthrough when Inshan Bansal held out to White with just two runs on the board.
However, they were made to toil for the other wickets as Mukkamalla and skipper, Sanjay Stanley shared in a 101-run partnership for the second wicket.
Mukkamalla stroked a patient 60 from 133 balls consisting of three fours and a lone six that was dispatched on the roof of the GCC Pavilion over mid wicket but was undone when leg-spinner, Wayne Bollers drew him out his crease to be stumped by Yearwood’s excellent work.
Stanley on the other hand was positive in his 64-ball 43, running well between the wickets and hitting one four and one six before picking out Kester McAllister at mid-wicket off of Akeem Critchlow who had 2-19.
Isaiah Jagernauth fell shortly after with Shivrattan taking a brilliant diving catch at slip off Critchlow but Chaitanya Parwal stroked consecutive boundaries through the covers and flicked a delivery over the wicket-keeper to seal the match. He remained unbeaten on 16 while Andre Seepersaud finished on five not out.
The final will be played against Demerara Cricket Club at the same venue tomorrow from 09.30hrs.
