THANKS to a robust knock from Tevin Imloch, backed by superb individual innings from Travis Persaud and Shurfane Rutherford, Demerara defeated the National Under-17s by 66 runs, booking for themselves a place in Saturday’s final of the Guyana Cricket Board/Raj Singh Insurance Under-19 Inter-county limited overs tournament.

Imloch struck 17 fours and three sixes from the 161 balls he faced for his unbeaten 131, which, together with Persaud’s 73 and Rutherford’s robust unbeaten 70 n(19 balls, 10×6, 2×4), guided Demerara to a massive 326 for 4 from their 50 overs at the Police Sports Club ground, Eve Leary.
Skipper Ricardo Ali-Mohammed and Asif Ally had identical figures of 2 for 33 for the Under-17, who in reply were restricted to 260 for 9, with contributions coming from Ramnarine Chatura (39), Gavin Boodwah (35), Raymond Perez (33), Bhaskar Yadram (32), Adrian Sukhwah (31) and Ali Mohammed 27.
Tariq Dharamlall took 2 for 32 while Rutherford returned with the ball after his whirlwind innings to claim 2 for 50, to continue his impressive performance with the ball for Demerara throughout this tournament, having led all fast bowlers with 17 wickets in the three-day tournament played earlier.
Across the road at Everest Cricket Club, Essequibo shocked the recently crowned three-day champions Berbice, with a stunning three-wicket victory, to chalk up their first win in the tournament, following their shocking first round loss to the Under-17, while efforts to get the scores for this game proved futile, since both book scorers refused to answer the several calls made to their phones.
Following today’s rest day, the final round will bowl off tomorrow, with Demerara facing Essequibo at Enmore under the guidance of Yosef Yisrael, Ryan Banwarie and Deon Feassal, while Berbice will be looking to redeem themselves against the Under-17, when they clash at the Police Sports Club ground, with Delvin Austin, Zaheer Mohammed and Chetnarine Persaud being the men in charge. (Calvin Roberts)