Rose Hall Town emerge as champions, Anderson impresses

BCB/Let’s Bet Sports 100 Balls Tournament 2019…

No spectators were allowed into the Albion Ground on Sunday for the finals of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) 2019 Let’s Bet Sports 100 Balls Tournament as the Board enforced the Government’s COVID-19 guidelines as it has done since the restart of cricket in 2021.
Security at the main entrance supervised the entry of players and officials only. Rose Hall Town Bakewell continued their dominance of Second-Division cricket in the Ancient County by defeating D’Edwards CC by six wickets to emerge as the overall champions.

The one-day finals involved the four champions from the four interzone tournaments that were played in 2019/2020 in West Berbice: New Amsterdam/Canje, Lower/Central Corentyne and Upper Corentyne.
In the first round of matches, D’Edwards CC defeated Rose Hall Canje by 15 runs while Rose Hall Canje had to dig deep to get past a determined Dukestown Warriors by one run in a super over after their first-round match ended in a tie.
In the final, Rose Hall Town invited D’Edwards to take first strike, and the West Berbice champions were rocked back early when Altaf Khan was bowled for two to make it 3 for 1 in the first over. They never recovered and were restricted to 82 for 9 off their allotted overs.
Veteran skipper Jaipaul Heeralall top-scored with 33, which included two massive sixes. D Persaud supported with 18 as Kelvon Anderson took 3 for 12 and Sylus Tyndall 2 for 11 in an impressive spell of fast bowling. Junior Sinclair, Keith Simpson, and Collis Butts took a wicket apiece.
In response, the champions raced to victory with 83 for 4 with 10 balls to spare. Anderson returned with the bat to top score with 25 and received support from former national junior player Sinclair (24) and Surendra Kissoonlall (16). Collis Butts (02) and Simpson (04) were the batsmen at the crease when victory was achieved. Abdool Sudhan took two for 19 while H Harilall and Devon France took a wicket each. Anderson was named Man of the Match for his brilliant all-round effort and received a trophy and financial prize.
BCB President Hilbert Foster at the presentation hailed the tournament as a remarkable success story, and congratulated Rose Hall Town Bakewell on winning the overall championship. He also hailed the support of the Guyana Lottery Company, who invested over $1 million in the first-of-its-kind tournament in Berbice. Special thanks were expressed to Rawle Toney, Ian De Barros and Guyana Lottery Company General Manager Tracy Lewis. The BCB President proudly announced that the Let’s Bet Sports final was the 17th for the Board since the Berbice cricket season started six weeks ago. The BCB, he stated, was well on its way to completing more than 40 cricket tournaments in 2021, the most in its history since being formed in 1939.The champions took home $100,000, and the runners-up $50,000 while the two losing semi-finalists pocketed $20,000 each. Each of the teams also received a collection of Let’s Bet Sports promotional items, including sports bags and water bottles.