The strong Rose Hall Town (RHT) NAMILCO Thunderbolt Flour First-Division Team have advanced to the semi-finals of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB)-organised two-day competition. They crushed the Skeldon Community Centre Cricket Club by an innings and 75 runs in a fourth-round match at the Skeldon Ground, to advance as the runners-up in Zone B.
In glorious weather, the home team won the toss and elected to bat, despite the presence of preparation moisture on the pitch. Their openers A Ali and D Reynolds gave them a slow but steady start by adding 18 runs from 14 overs before Reynolds was bowled by impressive left-arm spinner Keith Simpson. The introduction of West Indies off-spinner Kevin Sinclair created problems for the home team as he extracted great spin and bowled from the pitch.
Sinclair took five wickets for 11 runs from nine overs while Simpson took four wickets for six runs from nine overs. Jeremy Sandia took one wicket for five runs as the home team were bowled out for a meagre 35 from 33 overs.
Kevin Sinclair and Romesh Bharrat added 40 for the first wicket for the visitors before left-arm spinner N Mathura got one to bounce sharply to dismiss Sinclair for 30. National player Junior Sinclair then blasted the Skeldon bowling attack to all parts of the ground during an innings of 73 runs which included seven huge sixes and five fours. The visitors reached 160 for four before declaring with a first-innings advance of 125 runs. Sinclair and Bharrat supported with 30 and 35 runs respectively while Matthew Pottaya chipped in with 18.
The best bowler for Skeldon was A Ali with three wickets for 47 runs from eight overs.
Facing a first-innings deficit of 125 runs, Skeldon were bowled out for 50 runs in their second innings as only S Rasheed offered resistance with 15. Former national pacer Clinton Pestano, in a fiery spell of fast bowling, took four wickets for eight runs. Pottaya, with two for 10, and Kelvin Sinclair (two for 15) also bowled well while Sandia and Simpson took a wicket apiece as Rose Hall Town NAMILCO Thunderbolt won by an innings and 75 runs.
The Clinton Pestano-led NAMILCO Thunderbolt Flour team finished as the runners-up in Zone B and now await the results from Zone A which includes Blairmont, Tucber Park, Young Warriors, Rose Hall Canje and West Berbice. Rose Hall Town NAMILCO Thunderbolt Flour recorded outright victories versus Police, Port Mourant and Skeldon, but went down by nine wickets against arch-rivals Albion. Junior Sinclair has been their leading batsman so far with 301 runs at average of 75.25 while left-arm spinner Simpson is the leading bowler with 28 wickets at an average of 6.10. The match versus Skeldon also saw the team welcoming back wicketkeeper Chanderpaul Govindan, after an absence of two years owing to his studies in Canada.
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