In action ongoing in the Hand-in-Hand Inter-County 50-Over Under-19 tournament being played at the Everest Cricket ground, Demerara have brushed aside the Guyana Select Under-17 Team by seven wickets.
The Demerara chase was akin to simple batting practice
Having won the toss, the Select side elected to bat in conditions of brilliant sunshine and a hard pitch with a proverbial bias for the team taking first strike.
Rampertab Rampersaud and Matthew Nandu opened the batting, but the latter player was dismissed by Pradesh Balkishun after making just 5 runs off 37 balls.
Although losing the first wicket cheaply, the Select U-17 Team continued to push on, batting smartly as they pushed for singles while seldom dispatching bad balls. The pressure eventually caught up with them as the wickets of Rampersaud, Mavendra Dindyal and Zeynn Ramsammy fell for 19, 6 and 13 runs respectively.
Sachin Singh, Zachary Jodah and Daniel Mootoo chipped away at the top order as the inexperienced Under-17 side proved to be no match for the battle scarred Demerara side.
Andre Seepersaud came to the crease, and played a handy knock of 31 off 55 balls to lift his side out of trouble, but he was run out by Balkishun, which dented his side’s hopes of posting more than 150.
After Seepersaud’s resistance, the next five wickets fell for 12 runs, as Qumar Torrington and Ashmead Nedd cleaned up the tail to restrict the Select U-17 Team to 117 all out in 45.5 overs.
Nedd was the pick of the Demerara bowlers with 2-10; while Mootoo’s 1-17, Jodah’s 1-13, Balkishun’s 1-6, Singh’s 1-31 and Torrington’s 1-31 all supported Demerara well.
Needing a total of 118 for victory off 300 balls, the Demerara opening pair of Sachin Singh and Robin Williams started the chase patiently. They established a partnership of 71 without loss at the end of 20 overs, and shared the honours equally. Eventually, Singh fell victim to off-spinner Ajay Gainda for 32 when he chipped down the track only to be caught at the long-on boundary.
This brought Adrian Hinds to the middle with 46 runs needed from 28 overs. Williams soon became the second wicket to fall, trapped leg before for 32 by Andre Seepersaud. By then the foundation had already been laid, and Demerara were on the verge of victory, needing only to play smart cricket.
Hinds, however, was foolishly run-out for 22 when he misjudged a run, taking the score to 100-3 in 29 overs. With 18 runs needed for victory, it was a stroll in the park for Persaud and Alphius Bookie, who ran their singles to take Demerara over the line with the score at 118-3 in 35.3 overs.
Sachin Singh was adjudged ‘player-of-the-match’ for his all-round performance.
