A captain’s knock from Assad Fudadin led Cellink Berbice past Demerara in the final of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) El Dorado 50-Over Competition, to successfully defend their title as the two teams clashed yesterday at the Albion Community Centre Ground. Playing on home soil, Berbice won the toss and gave Demerara first strike; they got to 236 – 9 in their allotted overs then the home side rallied to the target of 237 in exactly 42 overs losing four wickets in the process.
Fudadin, who was adjudged  Man-of-the-Series, put together a man-of-the-match performance taking a wicket to add to his unbeaten 105 from 110 balls as Berbice comfortably secured the victory satisfying a very supportive home crowd.
He opened the batting with Richard Ramdeen who was dismissed the first ball of the second over to Andre Stoll when he aired one to long-on, Berbice was 5 – 1.
The new batsman, Narsingh Deonarine did not last long either as he got  a leading edge off a Paul Wintz delivery and was caught by Leon Johnson at gully, Berbice was then 22 – 2.
Devon Clements (26) and his captain took Berbice’s score to 101 then the former was bowled with the introduction of Zaheer Mohammed into the attack.
When Jonathan Foo joined Fudadin in the middle the run flow increased with Foo blasting a steamy 43 as Fudadin also accelerated the scoring.
Their partnership of 75 was constructed in nine overs before Foo, the final Berbice wicket to fall, went with the score on 176 to bring Royston Crandon to the middle.
Fudadin and Crandon (32) then took the batting power play at the 30th over with the score on 180 and managed to score 44 in those five overs before arriving at the target.
Earlier in the day, Trevon Griffith led the batting for Demerara as he top scored at the head of the innings with an attractive 78 in which he displayed much patience and maturity.
Griffith and Shemroy Barrington got Demerara off to a respectable start before Barrington was trapped leg before wicket (lbw) for 16 by Ramdeen in the ninth over which brought captain, Leon Johnson to the middle.
Johnson and Griffith put on a partnership of 108 runs in which the latter made the larger contribution, bringing up his half century in 54 deliveries. The partnership ended when Johnson misjudged a single and was run out on 45, Demerara was 148 – 2.
Griffith was then bowled by Steven Latcha in the next over with the score still on 148. He laced his 88-ball innings with just six boundaries.
Berbice then had the two new batsmen, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Vishaul Singh to apply pressure on, and they managed to remove Chanderpaul for seven; a disappointing score following his unbeaten innings of 95 on Tuesday.
Gajanand Singh (14) and Mohammed (19) got good starts batting alongside Vishaul Singh but were unfortunate  not to carry on their innings as they fell to Foo and Crandon, respectively.
In the final five overs , Mohammed, Paul Wintz, Kellon Carmichael and Vishaul Singh were removed in the space of seven runs as their run rate was significantly affected which restricted them to only 236, a target which seemed very gettable on the pitch which offered something for both batsmen and bowlers.
Narsingh Deonarine, Crandon, Latcha and Krishendat Ramoo each picked up two wickets each for Berbice while Fudadin supported with one  wicket.