-Select U-19 finish second after victory over Essequibo

A DOMINANT performance by the Berbice female team propelled them to a double title when the curtain came down on the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Senior Inter-County Cricket competition yesterday afternoon at the Georgetown Cricket Club ground, Bourda.

The Ancient County cricketers, who recently won the 50-over competition for the sixth consecutive time, added the Twenty20 title to their list of victories and they did it in fine style with dominant bowling and quality batting.

Their unbeaten run culminated with a six-wicket win over Demerara for a flawless run to the title.

On the final day’s play, the competition could have gone in a different direction, given that the Select U-19 team had defeated Essequibo by 50 runs, which would have given them two wins, since they had gotten past the Demerara team by five wickets on Friday at the Everest Cricket Club ground. Demerara also had a win over Essequibo and a victory against Berbice would have placed them on two wins.

Berbice were having none of it and they did enough to ensure that the match officials did not have anything to calculate—three wins in three games.
The Select U-19 team, which was captained by Shabika Gajnabi, finished second, Demerara third and Essequibo fourth.

In their final round of the competition, Demerara won the toss and opted to take first strike, but they were undone by some quality bowling from West Indies fast-medium bowlers, Erva Giddings and Subrina Munroe. The pair picked up five of their opponents’ wickets and helped to dismantle the middle and lower order, which resulted in Demerara losing their last seven wickets for 16 runs.

Giddings finished with 3-9 from four overs, while Munroe took 2-16 from four overs to restrict the home county to 57-9 in their allotted overs.
Akeze Thompson, who stroked the ball well, led Demerara with 16 runs, while opener Lashuna Toussaint added 10 (1×4) and Keisha Fraser eight (1×4).

Sheneta Grimmond, in reply, led Berbice with the bat. The youngster, who was in the West Indies squad for last year’s World Cup, was ultra-aggressive, scoring 31 unbeaten runs. Although she scored a single four—a sweet shot backwards of square, she did heap on the pressure on the fielders with two threes and several doubles.

Thompson and Kaysia Schultz brought some life to the game after spinning their way to two wickets each. In the end, the Berbicians raced to 58-4 from 12 overs.
The earlier game between the Select U-19 team and Essequibo was reduced to a seven-over affair because of rain.

The Select U-19 team batted first and scored 79-3 after a 61-run opening partnership. Gajnabi led the attack with 41 runs (3x4s and 1×6), while her opening partner Mandy Mangru added 13.

The teenage skipper then used five bowlers, including herself, to stifle Essequibo’s batting, which eventually restricted the winless team to 29-1 off their allotted overs.