Umrao, Algoo lead respective charts after 3-day inter-county tournament

After completion of the Hand-in-Hand Three-Day Under-19 Inter-County tournament, the Berbice duo of Kelvin Umrao and Alex Algoo lead the respective charts.
The West Indies U-19 left-arm spinner Umrao ended the tournament with the most wickets and the most five-wicket hauls. His U-19 team mate Algoo has scored the most runs in the tournament, inclusive of the lone century scored.
Umrao, the talented lad from Albion, ended the tournament with 23 wickets in the 3 matches and five innings he bowled. In his first match, against Guyana Select U-17, he snared 5-55 in the first innings, but did not bowl in the second innings due to the inclement weather.
In the second-round match against Essequibo, at the Lusignan Community Centre Ground, Umrao snared 5-24 and 2-23. He continued to prove his consistency when he met the big guns, Demerara, against whom he grabbed 11 wickets in the match. In the first innings he grabbed 5-21, and followed that up by taking 6-41 in a match-winning effort that earned him ‘player of the match’ recognition at Lusignan.
Arguably the best right-arm off-break bowler around, Joel Spooner took 17 wickets in the tournament, after taking 11 wickets against Essequibo in the opening round played at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC), Bourda.
The other off-spinner among the wickets was Essequibo’s Amit Persaud, who had two six-wicket hauls against the most dominant teams in the inter-county tournament. He had 6-69 against Demerara and 6-93 against Berbice in the second round.
Guyana’s Select U-17 player Chanderpaul Hemraj was also among the wickets, having taken a five-wicket haul against Demerara.
West Indies U-19 World Cup player Ashmead Nedd, the Demerara captain, has not had the best of three-day tournaments, but in the One-day format starting Monday he will be hungry for wickets.
His teammate Sachin Singh has had a poor tournament with the bat, but will be aiming ‘to make things right’ in the shorter format.
The leading batsman of the three-day format has been Alex Algoo, who scored 270 runs at an average of 45. Algoo, who hails from the Young Warriors Cricket Club in Berbice, smashed a high-score of 175 in a sublime innings played against the Select U-17 Team at the Everest Cricket Club in the opening round. Although not at his consistent best, he recorded a half-century after his marathon innings. Algoo has had scores of 06, 175, 22, 52, 05 and 10 in the six innings he batted.
His opening partner Junior Sinclair ended the tournament with 195 runs at an average of 39. His top score has been 50 not out against Essequibo.
Garfield Benjamin (128), Robin Williams, Alphius Bookie, Orlando Jailall, Kevin Christian, Mavindra Dindyal and Zeynul Ramsammy all had some scores, but were not consistent to score centuries in the three-day tournament.
A few of the National U-19 players each had a poor tournament with the bat: Sachin Singh, Adrian Hinds, Yudister Persaud, and even Kevlon Anderson did not get the runs they would have hoped for. The senior players will be aiming for improved fortunes when the One-day tournament commences on Monday May 13.