Chaitnarine, spinners dismantle Essequibo in Berbice victory

GCB’s U-17 Inter-county 50 Overs tournament…

Story and Photos by Brandon Corlette

Sarwan Chaitnarine continued his rich vein of form when he smashed his second half-century in as many matches to lead Berbice to 177 all out in 47.4 overs. In Essequibo’s reply, they were demolished for 41 all out by the triple threat of Hemraj Harilall, Gourav Ramesh and Abdul Ramsammy. The spin trio took three wickets each in Berbice’s 136-run win.

The boys from the Ancient County, Berbice U-17, won the toss and elected to bat first on a slow turner at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC), Bourda. Opening batsmen Ricardo Ramdihol and Colis Noble added 24 runs inside five overs. Noble who replaced Rayad Karim at the top of the innings, was out caught for 13 to the lively right arm speedster, Sheldon Charles.
Left-handed Ricardo Ramdihol fell for 12 with the score on 49-2 after 13 overs. The former Guyana U-15 captain, Zeynul Ramsammy, batting at number three was out via the run out route for 22 after timing three boundaries. Marvan Prashad hit a four and was out bowled by Ryan Atkinson.

At 65-4, Berbice dynamic duo, Sarwan Chaitnarine and Jonathan Rampersaud, added 37 runs together before Rampersaud was out caught after a painstaking 10. Albion’s Chaitnarine continued to bat in finesse, taking his team to the 100 run mark with a cut shot to the boundary in the 29th over.
After Rampersaud departed at 102-5, Abdul Ramsammy making a return to the team, looked a class apart in the 31 run partnership with Chaitnarine. Abdul Ramsammy, the elder brother of Zeynul Ramsammy, hit the first 6 of the match into deep mid-wicket off the bowling off the bowling of Renaldo Scouten.
The classy Abdul threw his wicket away, hitting one to mid-on off the bowling of off-spinner, Wazim Mohammed. His promising 14 included one six and one four. After Sarwan Chaitnarine reached his second half-century in as many matches in the inter-county, he played a loose drive to cover and was out for 51.

His carefully constructed 51 included three boundaries as he displayed great running between the wickets. When the Berbicians were reduced to 150-7, the Essequibo boys were aiming to wrap up the innings. Mahendra Gopilall was striking the ball with immense power, smashing left arm spinner Aryan Persaud into the sight screen. Gopilall ran out of partners, remaining unbeaten on 25 when Berbice were bowled out for 177 in 47.4 overs. Bowling for Essequibo, off-spinner, Wazim Mohammed snared 5-28 in 10 top overs.
In reply, Essequibo ran into a roadblock from the Berbice spinners when they were bowled out for 41 runs in 22 overs. Only skipper Sheldon Charles and Orin Gibson reached double figures with 13 and 10 respectively. Backed up with some brilliant fielding, led by Ricardo Ramdihal who took a blinder at mid-wicket to remove Uriah Stoll, the bowlers were in firm control. The Berbicians bowling an all-spin attack in this encounter, began with right arm off-spinner Jonathan Rampersaud who immediately got the breakthrough in his second over. Left arm orthodox spinners, Hemraj Harilall and Gourav Ramesh spun webs around clueless batsmen picking up three wickets each.

Right-arm off-spinner Abdul Ramsammy did some of his own damage with the ball, grabbing three wickets in the complete performance. Hemraj Harilall had 3-4 in seven overs, Gourav Ramesh had 3-15 in six overs, while Ramsammy had 3-10 four overs.