Renee’s 99 lifts Demerara to title

GCB/Hand-In-Hand U-19 Inter-County 3-day…

– Yadram slams 177 against Berbice

By Akeem Greene

Demerara comfortably won the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Hand-In-Hand Under-19, Inter-county, Three-day title on Saturday at the Georgetown Cricket Club ground, Bourda.

The certain star of the day was Man-of-the-Match Ronaldo Renee, who narrowly missed out on scoring back-to-back centuries when he fell for 99.
Renee’s heroics piloted Demerara to first innings points in the drawn match, as they topped the table in the four-team competition.
In response to Essequibo’s first innings total of 196, Demerara were bowled out for 240 just after tea and to obtain a lead of 44. Demerara resumed their innings on Saturday on 16 without loss, with both Renee and Raymond and Perez at the crease on seven.
The pair, who added over 200 runs for the first wicket in their previous match, looked like a recurrence was on the cards, but left-arm spinner Akini Adams trapped Perez leg before for 23 and the first wicket fell with the score on 73.
Off-spinner Looknauth Chinkoo in combination with Adams took the wickets of Sherfene Rutherford (15) and Romain Muniram (3) to leave Demerara in a slippery position at 96-3.
Renee, who plays for the Everest Cricket Club, never seemed affected by the fall of the wickets at the other end, as he took his score to 52 at lunch and shared a 39-run partnership with Travis Persaud (18) who fell just before the break.
It was after the interval that a further decline occurred as Gavin Boodwah (3) and Malcom Hubbard (4) fell to leave Demerara reeling at 162-6.
The calm to the storm came when Ronaldo Ali-Mohammed and Renee produced a gusty 42-run partnership for the seventh wicket which guided their team to first innings points.
An intriguing battle then occurred when Renee was on 99 and Essequibo brought all the fielders in, preventing any easy single for the batsmen.
The pressure forced Renee to play a slog-sweep off the bowling of Adams which ballooned into the air and was taken a square-leg.
The diminutive batsman, who did the bulk of scoring for his team, occupied the crease for 197 minutes and faced 207 balls.
In his responsible innings, he hit seven fours and cleared the ropes once and Demerara were now 204-7.
Ali-Mohammed eventually fell for 35, as the spin duo of Adams and Chinkoo cleaned up the rest of the tail to bowl out Demerara just after tea.
Adams’ mesmerising spell saw him end with figures of 6-87 and Chinkoo in support with 3-43.
With a deficit of 44, Essequibo reached 66-1 when play came to a close. Mark Williams made an attacking 42 before he was out stumped; Nathan Persaud was the not out batsman on 19.
Over at Wales, Bhaskar Yadram slammed a stroke-filled 177 against Berbice to lead his side to 327 all out in response to Berbice first innings total of 73.
The one-day segment will bowl off on Monday with Demerara playing Essequibo at Wales and Berbice playing the Select Under-17s at Enterprise.