After much hype, the dust was settled on Sunday at the Vergenoegen ground with Parika Salem Sport Club defeating Hyde Park by four wickets to win the final of the East Bank Essequibo Cricket Committee (EBECC) T20 tournament in a low scoring thriller.
Sixteen wickets tumbled to make the climax to a good tournament even more dramatic. It was Hyde Park who was on the receiving end of losing wickets from the get go and never recovered from their bad start. Medium pacer Javed Shafeek began the destruction when he bowled opener Mark Braithwaite off the very first ball before Nandkishore Rodman was run out without scoring. Jimol Marks then uprooted the stumps of Yougister Bachan (00) to leave the score at 16-3 and before long, Hyde Park were bowled out for 72 in the 16th over.
The Parika Salem team seem pleased after a splendid display in the final on Sunday
There were some brave efforts in the middle order with Adrian Johnson playing some shots and got support from Ricardo Adams who played a typically aggressive innings.
However, Adams was then caught just inside the cover boundary off Ravin Balgobin at 35-4 before Ucil Armstrong was lbw to left arm spinner Hemchand Persaud for 10 to leave the score at 53-5. Any hopes of a huge Hyde Park total largely depended on Johnson but after he caught off Jason Heyliger for 18, the rest of the batting crumbled against some tidy bowling leg by Balgobin with 4-16, Marks 2-9 and Persaud 2-13.
Parika Salem Openers Kevon Boodie and Mark Gonsalves then began purposeful with a commanding opening stand of 32 before the latter was removed by Bachan for 14. Boodie who took boundaries off Adams was then given out LBW to Looknauth Chinkoo for 18 with the score on 50.
Kevol Savory who hit two fours and one six skied left arm seamer Rodman to short mid-wicket to depart for 17 while Chinkoo had Looknauth (01) stumped leaving the score at 55-4. Michael Goberdhan and Travis Mohamed inched their team closer to victory before Mohamed was removed by Adams for 14. Chinkoo who bowled with variation and control removed Marks for one before Goberdhan (06*) hit the winning runs as they finished on 78-6 in 14.5 overs. Chinkoo claimed 3-12 while Bachan, Adams and Rodman had one each.
The day began with Vergenoegen brushing aside Tuschen A by 94 runs to win the third place play-off. The assault was set up by Lennox Andrews with 78 as Vergenoegen posted 168-7 after batting first. Andrews shared in useful partnerships with Royden Hendricks and Stephon Johnson as he anchored his team batting. Andrews struck seven fours and three sixes in a top score of 78 while Johnson made 22, Hendricks 16 and Julio Jones 15.
D. Singh and Mohamed Saffie picked up two wickets each. Yestesh Dhanpaul took a few boundaries in the first over delivered by Eon Daniels and added 42 for the opening stand with V. Kissoon to get his team reply off to a fine start. However, after Dhanpaul and Kissoon went for 20 and 13 respectively, Tuschen A suffered a massive collapse and were bowled out for 74 in 13.2 overs. A. Khan was the only other batsman to reach double figures with 11 in a disappointing batting display. Jones snared 3-14 while Daniels, Jamal Gomes and Johnson had one each.
The presentation will be done on Sunday at Tuschen ground.
