Demerara crush Essequibo by nine wickets

Man-of-the-match Joel Spooner bagged 11 wickets on his inter-county Under-19 debut. (Royston Alkins photo)

It took title contenders Demerara just under 30 minutes on the final morning to secure a convincing nine-wicket outright win over Essequibo in round one of the Hand-in-Hand sponsored inter-county Under-19 three-day tournament at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) Ground, yesterday.

Scenes of the day saw Essequibo resuming the final morning on 155-9 with a lead of 23 runs. They were only able to add one run to their overnight score before being dismissed for 156 inside 61 overs.

Off-spinner Pradesh Ballkishun, who snared the final wicket to fall, ended with 4-22 from 10.1 overs while Joel Spooner, who engineered the early damage, finished with 6-54 and a match haul of 11-64 in his maiden Under-19 inter-county match.