Rose Hall Town (RHT) and Albion Community Centre have, over the last fifteen years, dominated Berbice Cricket, in the process establishing a rivalry that has left cricket fans enthralled with the action.
The winning RHT Bakewell Team posing with Anil Beharry and BCB Secretary Robby Saywack after securing the title
Two weeks ago, Albion edged their rivals by six runs to win the Mike’s Pharmacy Under-15 Title, but Rose Hall Town Bakewell, on Saturday last, turned the tables on their rivals to beat them by seven runs in the Fitness 53 Under-17 final.
This final was historic, being the first one ever played at the Hampshire Cricket Ground, and a fair-sized crowd was attracted to witness the proceedings.
Albion won the toss and elected to field after the umpires were forced to reduce the match to 45-Overs per side due to preparation moisture on the pitch.
RHT lost opener Vikash Subramanie for four in the first over, bowled by Sarwan Chaitnarine; but a second wicket partnership of 40 between Jonathan De Viera and Angelino Ramdial stabilised the innings before De Viera ran himself out for 17 with the score on 44 – 2 in the 8th over.
The wicket proved difficult for fast scoring, but the batsmen rotated the strike, until the crucial run out of National Junior Cricketer Jonathan Rampersaud resulted in the lower half of the innings falling apart. Mahendra Gopilall, the Guyana Under-15 player, scored 17, while Rampersaud (15), Chanderpaul Govindan (11), Angelino Ramdial (14), and Aaron Beharry (10) all got start but could not carry on.
Leon Cecil finished with 2-25, while T. Sandanand supported with 2-38; and Chaitnarine, Gourav Ramesh, Inzam Shazam and P. Ganesh took a wicket each.
Needing to score 127 from 47 overs to win the title, Albion lost Chaitnarine (4) and Hemendra Gurdyal (7) to Tyrese Sealy, then 12-year-old mystery spinner Matthew Pattaya had Leon Cecil caught at short extra cover for 1, to leave Albion at 20 for 3 in the tenth over.
National left-arm spinner Jeremy Sandia then dismissed the dangerous Surendra Ramcharitar for 17, as Albion collapsed to 34 for 4.
However, a solid fifth-wicket partnership of 52 between an elegant R. Kassim and the aggressive Inzam Shazam brought Albion back into the game, before the impressive Aaron Beharry had Shazam caught as the score ticked over to 86-5.
At that stage, the asking was for 51 more runs from 19 overs with five wickets in hand.
Then the all-spin Rose Hall Town bowling attack, consisting of Sealey, Pattaya, Rampersaud, Jeremy Sandia, Lucas Arthur and Beharry, retightened their grip on the game.
Kassim top-scored with 41, but was guilty of extremely slow scoring. He was the ninth batsman to fall, with the score on 114. Five runs later, Albion was dismissed for 119 off 44 overs, as Rampersaud trapped T. Sooknanand lbw for 2, to seal the deal. Sealey ended with 3-25, Rampersaud had 2-24, Jeremy Sandia bagged 2-26 and Beharry claimed 2-22 for the Champions.
Sealey was named man-of-the-match for his performance, while RHT pocketed $70,000 for winning and Albion settled for the runner-up prize of $40,000.
President of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB), Hilbert Foster, praised the Ramnaresh Sarwan/Fitness 53 Under-17 Tournament as another remarkable success of his administration.
