─ Everest skittled out for 98
By Timothy Jaikarran
The action continued under lights at the Demerara Cricket Club, as the highly anticipated finale between Everest Cricket Club (ECC) and the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) culminated the NBS 2018/2019 2nd division 40 overs’ tournament.
Winston Forrester (62) and Timothy McAlmont (65) both scored vital half-centuries
At the spin of the toss, GCC elected to bat first, as the pitch was a batsman’s paradise. Opening the batting for GCC was the in-form Winston Forrester and Martin Pestano Belle; and the GCC guns knew what was at stake.
Forrester and Belle played with class, punching the bad balls to the boundary while keeping the run rate ticking as Forrester brought up his half-century. However, after laying the foundation that would propel GCC forward, Forrester and Belle fell for 62 (4×9) and 32 (2×4 1×6) runs respectively, the leg spin of Amir Khan and off spin of Richie Looknauth.
From there it was simply the job of Deonarine Seegobin and Timothy McAlmont to carry on for GCC, the two batsmen at one point of the game digging deep and taking GCC to 183-2 with 10 overs remaining. The Everest team rotated their bowlers as they searched for a breakthrough. However, the breakthrough came as McAlmont went for a big shot off Khan and was caught for 65 (4×8 1×6).
Ronaldo Renee and Bernard bailey bagged 3-26 and 3-31 respectively to help GCC defend 260
Seegobin then switched roles, as he anchored the innings for most of the overs that remained. However, he was stumped for a well played 45 off 51 balls to take GCC past 200. But after Seegobin fell, Travis Mohamed of Everest struck to restrict GCC, as he bagged the wickets of Ronaldo Ali Mohamed, Jason Wade and Gavin Singh for below-par scores as they attempted big shots with less than five overs remaining in the game.
From there it was easy pickings for Everest, despite Carlos La Rose’s 5-ball 15 at the back end of the innings. GCC ended on 260-9. Bowling for Everest were Travis Mohamed 3-44, Amir Khan 2-25, Richie Looknauth 1-37 and Dwayne Adams 1-53.
Needing 261 for victory off 40 overs at a net run rate of 6.5 runs per over, the opening pair of Dwayne Adams and Ronaldo Renee started off their chase. But the pace of Bernard Bailey was too much to handle, as Renee was bested for pace and fell for 13 to leave Everest at 25-1. Shortly after, Captain Dwayne Adams attempted a slog sweep and top-edged the ball, but luck was on his side as Bailey dropped the catch to allow Adams to steal a single.
Things then took a turn for the worse, as Bailey struck twice in the same over to remove the hard-hitting Uanjrekar Bhola for one and Amir Khan for duck. It was now up to captain Dwayne Adams and Richie Looknauth to carry on for Everest if they were to remain in contention for the title.
However after smashing a six, Adams fell leg before to off spinner Gavin Singh for 18, to sink Everest into further trouble at 38-4. Things kept ticking along slowly as Everest fell deeper and deeper into trouble, losing Looknauth for 7 and Shaheed Mohamed for duck in the same over, to take the score to 48-6.
From there on, everything went downhill, as Mohamed returned to take his third wicket to clean bowl Daniel Mangal for 3 to take the tally to 73-7, as Everest slowly folded under pressure. The next victim to fall was Travis Persaud, off the left arm off-spin of GCC captain Devon Lord. He was caught by Forrester attempting to slog one over long on.
In the end, the last two wickets fell cheaply as Everest were dismissed with the score at 98-9. Javed Rasheed being injured earlier in the first innings and was unable to bat. Bowling for GCC were Ronaldo Ali Mohamed 3-26, Bernard Bailey 3-31 and Devon Lord 2-9.
