Lower Corentyne crush Central/Upper Corentyne to reach final
A BRILLIANT all-round performance by Lower Corentyne saw them into the final of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB)-organised Diamond Fire and General Insurance (DFGI)-sponsored Under-19 Inter-zone tournament, when they defeated Central/Upper Corentyne by 10 wickets at the Port Mourant ground.   
Winning the toss and choosing to bat first, Central/Upper Corentyne found themselves in trouble at 13 for 1 in the fourth over when Thameshwar Ramoutar was brilliantly caught behind by a diving Collis Cort of medium pacer Shailendra Hardyal for 2.
Steady bowling from all of the Lower Corentyne bowlers never allowed them to recover and they were eventually dismissed for an inadequate total of 105 off 47 of their allotted 60 overs, with Clavern Beresford top-scoring with an unbeaten 19 while Mark Lionel 12, Naem Yacoob and Dwayne Maynard were the other batsmen to reach double figures.
Bowling for Lower Corentyne, off-spinner Lloydel Lewis took 4-30 off 17 impressive overs while leg-spinner Avinash Wajid had 2-19 and off-spinner Harrinarine Chattergoon supported with 2-21 off 13 overs.
Chasing 106 for crucial first innings points, Lower Corentyne reached 236 all out off the allotted overs, with skipper Dominic Rickey and fellow opener Harrinarine Chattergoon posting 59 for the first wicket before left-arm spinner Dwayne Maynard trapped Chattergoon lbw for 13.
Kandasammy Surujnarine was brilliantly caught by Beresford one-handed at extra cover off Chaitram Naurang for 7, but Rickey went on to make an attractive 81 (10×4) while Joshua Ramsammy (29), Clinton Pestano 25 and Lloydel Lewis 30 all batted well.
Bowling for Central/Upper Corentyne, Naem Yacoob took 4-57 and Mark Lionel 2-30, and batting a second time with a first innings deficit of 131 runs, Central/Upper Corentyne fared better than their first time around, even though they were dismissed for 165.
Lionel returned with the bat to top score  an attractive 59 (4×4) while Stephen Embrack supported with 50 (3×4), but all-rounder Lloyden Lewis completed a good match by taking 4-61 off 20 overs  to end with a match haul of 8 for 91.
Leg-spinner Wajid grabbed 4-47 and Veerapen Permaul 2-31 for Lower Corentyne who needed to score 35 for an outright victory and reached 37 without loss with Trevor Thomas and Kandasammy Surujnarine being the not out batsmen on 15 and 19 respectively.
Lower Corentyne will now play the winner of New Amsterdam/Canje and West Berbice match at a date to be announced, after which, the team to defend the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/GTM Under-19 Inter-county title which is being launched this afternoon in the GCB’s boardroom, will be named.
Berbice will face off with Essequibo in their first match which will be a three-day affair at the Anna Regina Community Centre ground from Sunday, while they play their first limited overs match against the same opponents at the Blairmont Community Centre ground on the April 19.