Berbice pulled out all the stops to help put Demerara under pressure following the end of day one in round two of the GCB/Hand-in-Hand 3-Day inter-county tournament; despite some bravery from spinner Ashmead Nedd who kept them afloat.
Kevin Sinclair
At the Lusignan Ground,batting first, Demerara fresh off a massive win over the U17’s in round one, failed to repeat their ruthless aggression against the Berbicians who mowed them down for a first innings 148 inside 50 overs. Defiance came from opener Adrian Hinds who made 35, 43 from triple centurion Bhaskar Yadram who were the top-scorers.
Dwain Dick and his spin twin partner Ashmead Nedd were the other top-scorers with 17 and 10 respectively thanks to the bowling assault led by Berbice Captain Kevlon Anderson (4-17) and Keith Simpson (2-38); who subdued their opponents.
Capitalizing on the advantage of routing their opponents for under 150 in the first innings, Berbice ended day on on 102-5 from 29 overs; trailing by 46-runs. Their reply was led by Kevin Sinclair who smoked 58 off 45 balls while Anderson (16) and centurion from the previous round; Alex Algoo (15).
Despite a low total on the board, Demerara bravely defied the odds to help even up the match as Windies youth spinner Nedd spun webs around their batters with 4-41 while the off-spinner Dick chipped in with 1-15; as the defending champs seek to regroup when day two continues.
Meanwhile, action at Everest saw Essequibo who resumed on 261-7, ending their first innings on 290 all out due to a number of starts by their players including top-scorer Kurt Lowell (49) and skipper Kevin Christian (45).
Joshua Jones and Joel Fortune, the overnight pair shared a good partnership as they scored 34 and 22 respectively as Marvin Prashad and Sylvian Williams ended with three wickets apiece. Essequibo then sliced through the hapless-looking U17 Xi team, who folded for 144.
Essequibo’s bowling was led by the seamer Jones who grabbed 5-45 while his batting partner Fortune snapped up brilliant figures of 5-20 to headline a savage bowling outing. Navindra Persaud defied the onslaught to score a gritty 52 off 228 balls with just two fours.
Opener and skipper Sachin Singh fell for 26 while Ameer Singh was the next best scorer with 32. Was it not for the iron-man innings played by Persaud, the U17 select would have been miserably routed for less than they had as they trail Essequibo by 149 runs with a day remaining.
At stumps, Christian and his partner Mark Ramsammy were both unbeaten on one each when play ended. Action continues from 9:00h at both venues; weather permitting.
