Thomas, Harper set up Regal Masters’ crushing win

― Wellman Masters beat Ariel Masters

The masters’ finalists in the Regal Sport Softball competition were decided on Sunday with Regal Masters and Wellman Masters defeating Albion Masters and Ariel Masters respectively on Sunday at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground, Queenstown.

In the first semi final of the masters category Ariel XI suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Wellman Masters. Batting first, Ariel Masters were bowled out for a below par score of 142 in the 19th over. Richard. Persaud was first to go only contributing 10 while his opening partner Talesh Ramoutar soon followed for 17 with the score on 37-2. Peter Persaud tried to rebuild the innings and to hold the middle order together but saw D. Mohabir (8) and Mohamed Rafeek (7) giving away their wickets only having Jaikarran (13) and Dennis Mangru (16) adding to his 14 to help Ariel stagger to put up a challenging score. However, they were nicely assisted by a mammoth 35 extras which propelled them past the 140 mark.
Lester Thom was the pick of the Wellman bowling with three wickets for 29 runs from his four overs. He was well supported by Motilall Chumendatt and Wayne Jones who picked up two wickets a piece for 32 and 23 runs respectively.
In reply, Wellman mowed down the target with 23 balls to spare. Jones returned to take Wellman home, this time with the bat, blasting his way to 52. The tall left-handed batsman was well supported by the top order. Latchman Kallicharran and Greg deFranca opened the batting and managed to score 31 and 13 respectively while Lloyd Rooplall contributed with 13 of his own batting one-down. Nandram Samlall was also amongst the runs with 24.
Ramoutar, Mohabir and Singh collected one wicket a piece as the Wellman Masters registered a seven wicket victory. Meanwhile, Regal Masters advanced after they disposed of Albion Masters in their semifinal. Albion Masters batted first and posted 179 after being bowled out in the 20th over. Imran Hussain tried valiantly smashing three sixes on his way to 45 while Anil Beharry supported with 22. Mahendra Hardyal was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets for 32 runs from his four overs while David Harper gathered 16-2.
Regal Masters then muscled their way to 182/5 from 16.2 overs. Raymond Harper and Eric Thomas took control of the match with a half century each. Harper remained not out on 51 to see his side home after hitting three sixes while Thomas smacked eight sixes on his way to a top score of 66. John Sumair and Veerapen Moonsammy were the best bowlers from the Berbice team with figures of 2-20 and 1-38 respectively.
The Masters final will begin the day’s activities on Sunday from 10:30h.