The Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC) on Saturday last secured a semi-final berth in Berbice cricket for a record 200th time when they defeated a spirited Skeldon Community Centre Cricket Club by eight wickets at the Skeldon Ground.
Playing in glorious sunlight, the home team won the toss and elected to take first strike on a wicket with some preparation moisture.
Openers A Chattergoon and F Kalakadeen added 12 for the first wicket before the latter was caught by Raffel Mckenzie off medium pacer Munesh Rampersaud for two in the fourth over. The home team batsmen showed great application and they batted out 48.5 of the allotted 50 overs to reach 162 all out. The visiting bowlers struggled in the windy conditions and gifted Skeldon a healthy 53 extras which included 46 wides. Adil Ali top-scored with an aggressive 30, which included three boundaries. He received support from Chattergoon (15); A Ally (14) and A Nabi (16).
The Rose Hall Town Bakewell bowling effort was led by off-spinners Akash Sooklall and Balraj Narine, who ended with figures of 3 for 28 and 3 for 33, respectively. Pacers Mckenzie and Rampersaud ended with one wicket each. National Under-13 left-arm spinner Jayden Ganpat bowled 10 tight overs for seven runs, claiming the wicket of S Hercules.
Needing to score 163 from 50 overs, Rose Hall Town Bakewell were given an opening stand of 24 by national junior cricketer Ramzan Koobir and the in-form Jonathan Hicks before the former was bowled by L Sukwa for 10. Sukwa then bowled Rampersaud for 8 in the eighth over to give Skeldon some hope as the visitors fell to 43 for 2.
A confident captain, Tameshwar Deochand walked to the crease and changed the course of the game by taking 24 runs off the pacy Adil Ali. The ninth over cost 24 runs which included two mighty sixes and three sweetly off-driven fours. Deochand and Hicks then rotated the strike beautifully to add 122 runs in 22 overs to take their team over the line and to a place in the semi-finals.
Deochand was unbeaten on 59 while the fast-improving Hicks was not out on an even fifty. Deochand struck two sixes and five boundaries while Hicks, who scored a century last week in the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) Under-16 tournament, hit four boundaries. Sukwa, who was impressive with his medium- pace, ended with two wickets for 23 runs from six overs.
Rose Hall Town Bakewell now join Port Mourant as semi-finalists. Next Saturday, Tucber Park clash with Cotton Tree at Cotton Tree while Rose Hall Canje play Achievers in the remaining quarter-finals to determine the last two semi-final spots.
The RHTY&SC has won a total of 130 tournaments to date since its formation in 1990 and has emerged as runners-up 38 times.
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