BOTH East Coast Demerara and East Bank Demerara recorded respective second-round victories over Georgetown and West Demerara last Tuesday in their Demerara Cricket Board Under-17 Inter-Association 50-overs tournament.However, rain prevented any play in the final round yesterday, which would have seen East Coast take on West Demerara at Enterprise and Georgetown play East Bank at the Police Sports Club Eve Leary-based ground.

Thus, with their two opening-round victories over East Bank and Georgetown respectively, East Coast Demerara were declared champions of the tournament, followed by Georgetown, East Bank and West Demerara.
At Enterprise on the East Coast of Demerara, Georgetown who had earlier defeated West Demerara in the first round, took first strike and reached 145-7 in a contest that was reduced to 40 overs-a-side, due to early morning rain, with Darshan Persaud 32, Ronaldo Ali Mohamed 23 and Raymond Perez 17 being their principal scorers.
Bhaskar Deodat took 2-25 for East Coast, who like Georgetown had defeated East Bank in their first-round clash and, led by Ramnarine Chatura’s unbeaten 63 and 37 from Gavin Boodnauth, replied with 147-6 in 39.1 overs to defeat Georgetown by four wickets.
In their contest against West Demerara, East Bank were bowled out for 158 in 47 overs after they were inserted in hazy conditions at the Police Sports Club ground, Eve Leary, with Stephon Wilson and Daniel Scott adding 38 for the third wicket after they were reduced to 26-2.
Wilson struck four fours before he was dismissed for 26 while Scott hit a solitary boundary in scoring 23 and, following their dismissal, East Bank slipped to 73-5, before Bhojnarine Singh and Mark Ramsammy (10) shared in a sixth-wicket stand of 31 while Singh went on to add 38 for the seventh wicket with Jeremiah Scott, bringing some respectability to their team’s total.
Singh hit three fours in his 23 while Scott made 22 with two fours, even as Keshram Seyhodan grabbed 3-13, Vickram Talmakund 3-28, Ganesh Jitlall 2-18 and Kelvin Shewprasad 2-46 for West Demerara, who in their reply lost Kennard Moonsammy (6) with the score on 18.
However, Shewprasad and Seyhodan stabilised the chase with a second-wicket stand of 60, before Shewprasad was dismissed for 30 (3×4), followed by Seyhodan who fell for 35 (3×4), after which, their side’s reply went downhill despite a cameo 22 (2×4, 2×6) from Mark Jeffers as West Demerara were bowled out for 138.
Left-arm spinner Wilson captured 4-35; Abdel Bacchus snared 3-18 and Sagar Hetheramani 2-13 for the victorious East Bank Demerara unit.
Meanwhile, the competition bowled off on Monday with Georgetown and East Coast chalking up first-round victories over West Demerara and East Bank respectively.
At Eve Leary, West Demerara batted first and were bowled out for 125 in 40.1 overs, with only Seyhodan 33 and Shewprasad 25 showing resistance to the bowling of Colin Barlow who took 3 for 20 and Mark Baptiste 2 for 15.
Georgetown replied with 126-1 in 24.2 overs, led by 59 from Joshua Persaud and 33 from Raymond Perez, to set up their important clash with East Coast the following day, which they lost.
At Enterprise, East Coast overcame East Bank by 76 runs, after taking first strike and posting 221 for 2 off their allotted 40 overs, led by Chatura who struck an unbeaten 71, 62 from Boodnauth 43 from Yadram and 26 from Shrichand Gangaram.
East Bank in reply were restricted to 145-5 in 40 overs in response, with Paul Thomas scoring 33 and Mark Ramsammy 32 as Bhaskar Deodat and Afzal Rohoman snared two wickets each for the eventual victors.