– Essequibo seeking consolation win against Select U-17
By Brandon Corlette
The defending Under 19 inter-county champions, Berbice and their arch rivals, Demerara will battle for supremacy when they meet at the Lusignan Community Centre. These two high quality teams will meet today May 8, from 10:00 hours local time, for their third and final round clash of the Under 19 inter-county 3-Day tournament.
Berbice are sitting pretty, at the top of the table with 17 points while Demerara are in second position with 16.3 points. The Kevlon Anderson-led Berbice team played the first round against the Select U-17 at Everest; where they lost first innings points but took control of the match, but rain stood in their way of registering a come-back victory.
Following their first round, Berbice then showed their class when they dispatched Essequibo by 146 runs at Lusignan. The opening batsmen from Berbice, Alex Algoo and Junior Sinclair have been amongst the runs. Algoo, the leading run-scorer of the tournament and the lone centurion after two rounds, has 255 runs. Algoo recorded a brilliant 175 in the first round against Select U-17, followed by an aggressive 52 against Essequibo.
He will once more be relied on to do the bulk of the runs along with Junior Sinclair who has 159 runs in the two matches, including two half-centuries against Essequibo. West Indies U-19 selectee, and Berbice captain, Kevlon Anderson will be eager to register a big score since he has a lone half-century thus far in this tournament. The likes of Garfield Benjamin, Seon Galsgow and Nigel Deodat have shown their worth with the bat, chipping in with useful runs for Berbice.
The bowling department will be led by Kelvin Umroa who has two five-wicket hauls in this tournament thus far and his fellow left-arm spinner, Nigel Deodat has had wickets in the second round. Junior Sinclair, who had a superb spell against Essequibo and Seon Galsgow are the right-arm off-spinners in the team. Leon Swamy, Kevlon Anderson and Christopher Harry have been the pacemen for the Berbicians. Demerara who made light work of Essequibo in their first round, are a confident unit with two Windies selectees in Sachin Singh and Ashmead Nedd.
However, these big players have not yet registered outstanding performances; it was Joel Spooner who starred against Essequibo with 11 wickets in the match while opening batsman, Robin Williams has been among the runs for Demerara. The match will certainly be a cracker with the big names on show but the weather may affect the match, hence the change of venue from GCC to Lusignan.
Essequibo will continue to rely on the likes of Orlando Jailall and Kevin Christian with the bat who has done the bulk of the runs at the top of the order. The bowling department looks covered with off-spinners, Amit Persaud and Lance Roberts. Persaud has led the wicket-charts thus far with 14 scalps.
The Select U-17 team, Essequibo’s next opponent has shown much promise in both rounds. In their first match against Berbice, the Select U-17 team rattled the defending champions to 127 all out. The second round match saw the U-17 team bowl out Demerara for 169 before rain ended the match, with Chanderpaul Ramraj grabbing five wickets.
Essequibo has 0.2 points while Select U-17 has 10.4 points, the lads from the Cinderella county, will look for a consolation win against the upbeat Select U-17 team. After these final rounds of the 3-Day tournament the One Day 50-over format will commence and one of the matches will be played in Berbice.
