Budhu lights up opening day of nationwide softball tourney

The opening day of the inaugural 592 Beer/ I-Cool Water Nationwide 10-Over Softball tournament has clearly demonstrated that softball cricket is certainly not for the weak-hearted.
Two matches figuratively went “down to the wire” last Sunday at the GNIC Sports Club ground on Woolford Avenue in Georgetown. In one of the thrillers of the day, Sewchand Budhu and his Countryside team mates were left heartbroken after they failed to score the three runs needed for victory from the last ball of the match against Avengers.
Blazing the run chase, Budhu was well set on 91, and was going for a boundary to get the win when he was spectacularly taken inches away from the cover boundary, to send Team Avengers into a frenzy because Countryside had fallen three runs short to end on 112 all out from 10 overs.
Avengers had earlier scored 114 for 7 from their 10 overs, with Marvin Bobb getting 31 and Chris Samwaru 22; while Y. Mangal had bagged 3/10 from his quota of two overs for Countryside.
Troy Forde with 3/22 and Anand Persaud with 2/20 delivered with the ball to hand Avengers maximum points heading into round two.
In the other matches, LBI All Stars made 87 for 5 (Trevor Payne 28; Rajin Singh 3/19, Tyron Mohan 2/22) to defeat Success Youths, who posted 83 for 8 (Michael Jaikaran 29; Naresh Singh 3/18, Vickey Bhudram 3/23), by 4 runs.
Speed Boat with 129 for 5 (Greg Singh 37, Lennox Mark 28, W. Sundar 25; Taleshwar Ramoutar 4/10) crushed Lowland All Stars, who made 55 all out (Vishal Surujpaul 25; Greg Singh2/12, Wazir Hussain 2/10), by 69 runs.
East Coast All Stars then made 84 for 1 (5.3) (Suraj Boodhoo 44; Arzal Pritepaul 1/18) to beat LBI All Stars, who made only 79 (Trevor Payne 28, Javid Alli 18; Khemchan Persaud 4/4, Puran John 3/4), by 9 wickets.
The action continues at the same venue on Sunday from 9:00 hrs, with the five matches to be played seeing Speed Boat versus LBI All Stars, Avengers versus Lowland All Stars, Countryside versus Success Youths, Success XI versus Lowland All Stars, and Success XI versus Success Youths.
This tournament has been organised by Demerara Softball Cricket Association representative Samuel Kingston for teams across the country in the All Stars and Over-40-Year-Old categories, and is sponsored by marketing giants ANSA McAL.
The special, small supreme balls that are being used in this tournament are available only at Trophy Stall in the Bourda Market, or at the venues on match days. Teams will play in a round-robin format before the top teams advance to the semifinals.
There are lots of cash and trophies at stake.