Hand-in-Hand One-Day U-19 tournament bowls off today

Hand-in-Hand 1 Day U-19 tournament…

– Albion in full prep mode

The longer format of cricket — the Under-19 Three-Day Inter-County tournament — having concluded with Berbice reigning supreme, the players will now shift their focus to the familiar One-Day/50 Overs format.
This tournament will be important because the Regional Under-19 tournament will play in this format. The two matches on for today, Monday May 13, will be played at the Albion Community Centre ground and the Everest Cricket Club ground respectively.Defending one-day champions, Berbice, will host Essequibo at the Albion ground, while Demerara will meet the Guyana Select U-17 Team at the Everest ground.Visiting the Albion Community Centre ground on the eve of the clash, this reporter witnessed a well-prepared Albion pitch, to which Head curator Roger McDonald and his partner were in the process of adding the finishing markings. McDonald said that rain has not been constant in the ancient county, but extra covers have been prepared to cater for prospective showers.
The pitch looks dry, he said, but there is a bit of moisture within that would give the bowlers something to work with.
This match will be a return of inter-county competition to Berbice; since Berbice, under the captaincy of Sharaz Ramcharran, and Demerara, under the captaincy of Brian Sattaur, had clashed at this same venue in 2013.
The current Berbice U-19 Team will be led by Kevlon Anderson, a West Indies U-19 selectee who is as excited as his team mates to play this maiden inter-county match at home. Anderson will be aiming to follow in the footsteps — or even exceed the achievements — of Kevin Sinclair’s team, which had won the double in 2018.
Essequibo, first opponent for Berbice in this one-day tournament, has been one of the weaker opponents in the three-day format, and has finished in fourth position. However, that team would be hoping that a change of format would lead to a change to positive results.
Berbice will rely on its star players: Kelvin Umrao, Kevlon Anderson, Alex Algoo, Junior Sinclair and Garfield Benjamin, among others.
The Essequibo lads will hope other players step up to the forefront to join Orlando Jailall, Kevin Christian, Lance Roberts and Amit Persaud as stand-out performers.
Meanwhile, the Guyana Select U-17 Team is enjoying its preparation for the Regional Under-17 tournament, after finishing ahead of Essequibo. This team has also shown positive signs: bowling out Berbice and Demerara respectively for well below 200 runs in the three-day fixtures.
This One-Day format will be a different challenge for the Select U-17 Team, but its members are equipped and capable players. The star players Zeynul Ramsammy, Matthew Nandu, Chanderpaul Ramraj and Marvan Prashad will be aiming to upset the power-house Demerara.
After a poor batting display against Berbice in the final round of the three-day tournament, Demerara will reboot and rely on its senior players: Sachin Singh, Ashmead Nedd, Alphius Bookie, Robin Williams and Qumar Torrington, among others.
The ball will start rolling in both of these matches from 9:30h at the respective venues. (Brandon Corlette)