Wins for Essequibo, West Demerara, Upper and Lower Corentyne
…Royston Crandon was the day’s top scorer with 101 off 121 balls

ROUND one of the Jaguars 50-Overs franchise cricket league began yesterday throughout Guyana.

Over at the Imam Bacchus ground in Essequibo, the hosts took on West Berbice in a 30-a-side fixture with the former batting first and putting up 189 for 9.
Kevon Boodie top-scored with 35 while Kemol Savory and Ricardo Adams each scored 34 runs. West Berbician off-spinner Kelvin Sinclair grabbed 4 wickets for 30 runs, Wakar Hassan 2 for 12 while Keyron Fraser and Krishandat Ramoo collected a wicket each for 34 runs.

In the end, Essequibo won by 79 runs.
Over at Port Mourant, East Coast won the toss and took to the crease, making 252 all out in 48.4 overs thanks to Kamesh Yadram 41 and Ramnarine Chatura 57 not out.
Upper Corentyne, in reply, defeated East Coast reaching their target with a wicket to spare after Lindel Lewis top-scored with 66 while Kandasammy Surujnarine was unbeaten on 64. Balchand Baldeo also contributed 42 to the scoreboard. Kamesh Yadram picked up five for 47 runs with Bhaskar Yadram and Waslim Haslim supporting with 3 and 1 ¬¬¬¬wickets respectively.

Over at the Albion ground, Georgetown won the toss and inserted Lower Corentyne to have a first knock in which they posted 249 for 6 at the end of their 50 overs. Jonathon Foo hit 34 off 43 balls while middle-order batsman Royston Crandon top-scored with 101 off 121 balls. Devon Clements and Jason Sinclair contributed with 35 and 38 runs respectively.
Bowling for Georgetown, Paul Wintz and Ashmead Nedd picked up 2 wickets each for 48 and 27 runs in that order.

Young Franchise player, Ramaal Lewis also picked up a wicket along with Steven Sankar. Georgetown in reply failed to reach their target, crumbling for 136 still short by 113 runs after 38 overs.
Shemroy Barrington top-scored with 29 off 29 balls, while Lewis and Wintz each added 22. Veerasammy Permaul bagged 4 wickets for 26 while Royston Crandon picked up 3 wickets for 11 runs.

West Demerara vice-captain Tagenarine Chanderpaul top-scored with an unbeaten 70, pushing his team to 167 all out in 41.2 overs. Safras Esau also added 35 to the score while the team crumbled to the bowling of East Bank’s Ronaldo Ali Mohamed and Trevor France who each picked up 3 wickets for 26 and 29 runs respectively.

Chasing 168, East Bank folded for 136 all out in 37.3 overs with Steven Jacobs hitting 28 while Sachin Singh supported with 23 and Quazim Yusuf 22. West Demerara’s bowling line-up put up a fight with Romario Shepherd attaining 3 for 23 and Richie Looknauth supporting with 3 for 32.
West Demerara won by 32 runs.

Round two will be played tomorrow with East Coast challenging Georgetown at the GCC ground. Essequibo will take on East Bank at Imam Bacchus,
Lower Corentyne will face Upper Corentyne at Port Mourant ground while West Berbice will oppose West Demerara at Bush Lot ground from 09:30hrs.