Albion beat RHT Bakewell to take title

ALBION Community Centre Cricket Club were crowned the 2013 Berbice Cricket Board/Tenelec Inc. Under-17 cricket champions, after defeating defending champs Rose Hall Town Bakewell by nine wickets in the two-day final played last weekend at the Port Mourant ground.In the match, RHT Bakewell, winning the toss and batting first, found themselves in trouble at 2 for 9 by the 3rd over but Jason Anderson helped their revival by putting on 22 for the third wicket with Brandon Prasad (16) and then another valuable 26 for the fourth with Veramoottoo Sanwasane (12).
However, after that, left-arm spinner Joshua Harrichand took four consecutive wickets rapidly, including Anderson for 23, to reduce the defending champions from 57 for 3 to 72 for 7, before Kevlon Anderson (35*) and Calvin Jeffrey (25) averted further disaster by putting on 63 for the eighth wicket.
That was largely responsible for RHT Bakewell reaching 138 all out, as Harrichand ended with 5 for 22 from 23.3 overs and off-spinner Asif Ally 2 for 31 from 15 overs.
In Albion first innings, they lost Adrian Sukhwa (5) at 7 for 1 but Ritesh Umroa and Matthew Hardyal did well to put on 60 for the second wicket before Umroa fell for 35, after which his side lost two quick wickets to be 69 for 4.
Hardyal stood firm however, and did well to put on 30 with Kevindra Persaud (14) before both of them fell with the score on 99 for 6, with Hardyal contributing 41.
Asif Ally (24) and Josiah Dhanai (34) eased Albion past the first-innings target by putting on 49 for the seventh wicket that helped them reach 163 all out against the bowling of Denzel Sinclair who took 4 for 23 and off-spinner Joshua Gobin 2 for 18.
Facing a first-innings deficit of 25, RHT Bakewell began their second innings with a promising opening stand of 19 from Jason Anderson (6) and Kevlon Anderson (11) but then medium pacer Stephen Kamaludin and Asif Ally picked up two wickets each to reduce them to 25 for 4.
They never really recovered from that setback and were eventually bowled out for 66 in their second innings, as Ally ended with 4 for 25, Harrichand 2 for 11 and Stephen Kamaludin 2 for 13 from 6 overs.
Albion Community Centre, needing a mere 42 for victory in their second innings, reached the target with ease, losing Umroa for 8 with the score on 20, before Adrian Sukhwa (34*) and Matthew Hardyal with 3* saw them to victory, with Harrichand being named Man-of-the-Match.
First vice-president of the BCB, Anil Beharry, thanked the sponsor Bobby Deonarine and Tom Gruntzel of Tenelec Inc. out of Washington, USA for their investment in Berbice cricket, adding that their intervention has helped produce more cricketers for Berbice, Guyana and West Indies.
Narsingh Deonarine, Devindra Bishoo, Veerasammy Permaul, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Assad Fudadin, Royston Crandon, Gudakesh Motie and Shimron Hetmyer amongst many others are products of the sponsorship.