Browne and Forrester misses ton, Legay grabs five  for 77 as matches end in draw
POLICE Sports Club’s Rawle Browne and Georgetown Cricket Club’s Winston Forrester, missed out on centuries as the two second round matches in the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) organised Carib Beer/Friends of Cricket/Heroes Cup first division matches ended in draws last weekend.

The prolific Browne continued his run scoring attitude for Police Sports Club, hitting an unbeaten 95 as the lawmen who resumed on 43 without loss, were bowled out for 228 in reply to Everest Cricket Club’s 181, receiving support from Troy Benn and Cecil Adams who made 34 and 29 respectively at Eve Leary.

Christopher Surat and Javed Rasheed took three wickets each for 36 and 64 runs respectively for Everest who reached 56 for 1 when bad light stopped play, with Christopher Patadin hitting an unbeaten 32 that was decorated with four fours and one six.

In Everest’s first innings the previous day, national fast bowling selectee Trevor Benn grabbed a hat trick and was narrowly denied a helmet trick due to the absence of the last batsman for the Camp Road based opposition lineup.

Benn ended with 4 for 46 from 16.3 overs, while national Under-19 middle order batsman Chandrapaul Hemraj stroked a responsible 81 for Everest, who were forced to bat the first time without the services of Surat.

At the Camp Ayanganna ground, left-arm spinner Denis Legay also enjoyed a good day with the ball, taking 5 for 77 for the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) who fought gallantly against GCC but were forced to settle for the points earned from a draw, as Forrester proved to be a stubborn customer.

GCC began their reply to GDF’s 203 of which Shemroy Barrington top scored with 89 and Paul Castello and Kevin Boodie supported with 40 and 38 respectively against the bowling of Raj Nannan who took 4 for 36 on the final day and declared their first innings closed at 219-9 with Forrester hitting 11 fours in his 91.

Treon Forde (36), Nannan 19 (2×6) and Tyrell Tull 18 (2×6, 1×4) offered support to Forrester against the bowling of Legay who got support from Julio Jones and Barrington who picked up two wickets each for 11 and 61 runs respectively.

Batting a second time, GDF fared worst and were bowled out for 113 with Boodie leading the way with 28 while Marcus Watkins offered support with 20, as Nannan continued to mesmerize batsmen with his left arm spin, picking up 4 for 16 while Gavin Singh had 2 for 9.

Needing to score 99 to record an outright victory from a mere eight overs, GCC who were led by Robin Singh in the absence of Leon Johnson, raced to 49 for 1 from six overs before bad light stopped play with the pugnacious Wasim Haslim hitting an unbeaten 31 (3×6, 3×4) while Bacchus made 14.