West Dem Mavericks clinch victory over Everest Masters

An unbroken 46-run ninth- wicket partnership between Mark Gittens and Sham Persaud gave West Demerara Mavericks one of their greatest comeback victories over Everest Masters, whom they defeated by two wickets on Emancipation Day.
In a match played at the Everest Cricket Club ground in Georgetown, the Mavericks were set a paltry target of 136 runs to get from 25 overs for the win; but the visitors were down and out at 89-8 in the 19th over when Gittens and Persaud joined forces to accomplish the miracle.
Gittens finished unbeaten on 21, and Persaud on 32 not out when Mavericks reached 136-8 from 23.5 overs. The hosts posted a below-par score of 135-9 from their 25 overs, but made a game of it, with their bowlers coming to the party and making West Dem work for every run in the chase.
Ucil Armstrong (2/19) and Sahadeo Hardiow (2/16) applied the early pressure to leave West Dem in all sorts of trouble at 36-5 in the 10th over, before the game took another twist with Prahalad Singh showing grit and determination with a stubborn 21.
The game changed direction again when Saheed Mohamed bagged three quick wickets to finish with 3/22 from his five overs, which almost sealed it for Everest Masters.
However, Everest seemed to have had a bowler short, and could not deliver the knockout blow, thus Sham Persaud and Gittens did the repair job and won the match with relative ease, despite the tension.
Earlier, Mavericks had opted to bowl upon winning the toss, and the decision turned out to be the right one, since their bowlers picked up wickets at regular intervals and eventually reduced the hosts to a decent total on a typical Everest track.
Ronald “Sticky” Jaisingh got stuck in with the middle and lower orders to hit the top score of 64 after the top order folded meekly. Jaisingh found two useful partners along the way, and they repaired the damage from 48-4 and 72-7.
With Safraz Sheriffudeen (12) the attacking Jaisingh put on 19 for the fifth wicket, before the former was run out heading for a tight second run. Armstrong and Anwar Rahaman followed quickly without troubling the scorers, leaving Everest in a spot of bother at 72-7 in the 17th over.
It took a brisk 62-run partnership for the eighth wicket between the right-handed Jaisingh and the level-headed Ravi Narayan (18) to give the score some respectability.
Before that, opener Sahadeo Hardiow made 26 at the top of the innings, but perished after playing one shot too many.
Mavericks’ bowling was led by Seenarine Mathura with 2/17 (3), Sudesh Persaud with 1/7 and Sham Persaud with 1/17.
A rematch is proposed at home of the Mavericks on the West Demerara in the near future.