Berbice complete comprehensive win against Essequibo

Hand-in-Hand 3-Day Inter-County Tournament…

– Sinclair, Algoo, Deodat star on final day

By Brandon Corlette

Defending inter-county champions Berbice showed their class with a 146-run win over a depleted Essequibo team in their second round clash, played at the Lusignan Community Centre Ground on the Demerara East Coast.
Berbice rode on stellar performances from ‘player of the match’ Junior Sinclair, who scored twin fifties and grabbed three wickets.
Starting the second innings with a lead of 138, the dynamic duo of Alex Algoo and Junior Sinclair pushed the Berbice lead towards 269, as they scored 131-2 in 13.2 overs of explosive batting. When the declaration was made at 10:55 hours, Essequibo were left requiring 270 for victory.
Following up on his first round 175 against a Select U-17 Team, Alex Algoo smashed 52 from 28 balls in his 36-minute stay at the crease. The stocky lad from the Young Warriors Cricket Club in East Canje Berbice hit four sixes and five fours in his gem of an innings, before departing with the score on 92-1 inside nine overs.
Batting at number three, Kevlon Anderson came to the crease and smashed 11 runs from seven balls. He hit two classy fours before he was out caught from an Amit Persaud delivery.

Junior Sinclair, who had scored 50 in the first innings, remained unbeaten on 50 from 33 balls in his 62-minute innings.
Seon Glasgow, batting at number four, remained unbeaten on 12 at the declaration.
Bowling for Essequibo, off-spinners Lance Roberts and Amit Persaud took one wicket each in expensive spells that saw the Berbice batsmen scoring quickly.
Facing the daunting task of scoring 270 runs for victory on the third and final day of play, the Essequibo openers got off to a fluent start, adding 44 runs in eight overs. Kevin Christian was the aggressor, smashing two fours and two sixes in his fluent 31. He eventually was out caught at gully off Seon Glasgow from a beautiful Kevlon Anderson delivery.
By the lunch interval, Essequibo had reached 61-1 in 13 overs, with Orlando Jailall on 17 and Ameer Singh on 13. Resumption of the afternoon session saw the demise of Singh, who departed for 13 when he was bowled all ends up by off-spinner Junior Sinclair.
The big breakthrough came for Berbice when Junior Sinclair removed Orlando Jailall for 24, his being out caught by wicket-keeper Kevlon Anderson. With some tight bowling from the defending champions, Essequibo lost their final seven wickets for 51 runs.
The introduction of Nigel Deodat, who bowled with extreme control and flight, saw the Essequibo batsmen playing some reckless shots. Deodat removed Azim Mohammed for 01, Ellian White for 12, Lance Roberts for 13, and Amit Persaud for 05 as Essequibo fell for 123 all out in 45.4 overs, losing to Berbice by 146 runs.
Deodat ended with figures of 4-45 in 17 overs, including two maidens; while ‘player of the match’, Junior Sinclair, had 3-14 in 12 overs, among which were nine maidens. West Indies U-19 selectee Kelvin Umrao had 2-23 in 5.4 overs with his left-arm spin.
Berbice will play their third and final round on Wednesday, May 8, against Demerara at the GCC Ground in Bourda, while the Select U-17 Team will oppose Essequibo at the Everest Cricket Club in Georgetown.