As their teams clash today for the 2023 Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Super50 trophy at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) Ground, Bourda, Demerara and Berbice skippers Tevin Imlach and Veerasammy Permaul both expressed confidence at a media interaction yesterday.
Imlach pointed out that his team has rebounded excellently since their opening round loss to the Berbicians and singled out opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul as one of their key players. Chanderpaul, who hit back-to-back match winning fifties, will need to fire should the Demerara side hope to lift the trophy. Highlighting that there are a number of other potential match-winners in his side, Imlach suggested that the team’s batting would be crucial to their title challenge. He also acknowledged his own lack of runs despite being in good form prior to the competition.
Meanwhile, Ronaldo Ali Mohamed and Sherfane Rutherford came in for praise from Imlach for their good returns with the ball.
On the flipside, Permaul, captain of the so far undefeated defending champions Berbice, revealed that a win today would mean a whole lot to the Ancient County.
Permaul, already a legend in his own right, expressed confidence that his in-form teammates are capable of delivering the goods today. Romario Shepherd, Gudakesh Motie, Kevlon Anderson, Shamar Joseph and a returning Shimron Hetmyer, who looked good in the penultimate round on Thursday, are fresh off a huge CPL title win and have continued their form through this tournament with bat and ball.
Despite having a star-studded line-up, Permaul does not plan on underestimating his opponents, pointing out that Demerara is a quality team with their own amount of stars. He touched on the importance of the game between the two counties stating that the rivalry has been intense for more than a decade and that he was keen on ensuring the title returns to the Ancient County.
From an administrative point of view, the GCB’s Cricket Operations Manager Anthony D’Anrade, said that he was hoping for an improvement in terms of batting performances so that fans can witness an exciting final between the traditional rivals of inter-county cricket in Guyana.
“For the first three rounds, the scores were not encouraging as we saw low-scoring affairs, however we (GCB) are hopeful of a better affair in the final.
“These games should serve as good preparation for the upcoming Regional Super50 tournament, where we hope that the Guyana Harpy Eagles can go all the way and secure the Regional title so that we can have a clean sweep of the regional titles, having already bagged the four-day trophy earlier this year,” he declared.
The first ball of today’s final is set to bowl off at 9:00hrs and admission is free.
