AFTER two weeks of intense battle among first division cricket teams in Berbice, the top four teams from the two groups in the inaugural Berbice Cricket Board organised Universal DVD Club first division Twenty/20 cricket competition will battle in the semifinals today at the Blairmont Community Centre ground. Group ‘A’ winners Memorex Bermine and runners up Blairmont Community Centre, will look to face each other in the final set for Sunday at the Albion Community Centre ground, when they oppose Group B runners up Universal DVD Club Young Warriors and winners Rose Hall Town Gizmos and Gadgets respectively.
The first match will get underway at 09:00hrs between Memorex Bermine and Universal DVD Club Young Warriors, while RHTGG and the home team will do battle in the second semifinal which bowls off at 13:30hrs.
The Warriors’ batting line could give them the edge, since it includes the hard hitting national Under-15 batsman Shimron Hetmyer and his older brother Seon, national T20 opener Richard Ramdeen and his younger brother Kevin, along with Linden Austin and the veterans Anil Beharry and Hubern Evans.
Former Berbice all rounder Balram Samaroo and the hard hitting Videsh Singh will lend support to the above mentioned players in the batting department while the bowling department, which is based heavily on spin, will be led by off spinners Samaroo, Kevin Ramdeen and Austin as well as left arm spinners, the veteran Beharry and Richard Ramdeen.
The Memorex Bermine batting will depend heavily on their Berbice allrounder Eugene La Fleur who registered the lone century of the competition to date, his younger brother Joemal, Devon Clements, Keion De Jesus, Romario De Jonge and wicketkeeper batsman Ishwar Singh.
Their bowling attack will lie in the hands of national off spinner Steven Latcha who will be backed by, Clements, Joemal La Fleur and Andel De Jonge as well as left arm spinners Troy Mickle and Eugene La Fleur, with De Jonge and player/coach Julian Moore taking the sheen off the ball with their medium pace.
The second semi-final can certainly be a crowd pleaser with Guyana and West Indies fast bowler Brandon Bess taking on the likes of Assad Fudadin, Royston Crandon and the vast improving Rajiv Ivan who will all be in the RHTGG’s batting lineup.
Former Berbice batsman Renwick Batson, who has registered two half centuries in this inaugural tournament, former national wicket-keeper-batsman Delbert Hicks and national Under-19 batsman Dominic Rikhi, will add support to the batting line up.
The Area ‘H’ based team’s bowling will also be a handful with the likes of offspinners Ivan, who has two four-wickets hauls, Crandon, Eon Hooper and Khemraj Mahadeo, right arm leg spinner Shawn Pereira and fast bowlers Pestano, Batson and Fudadin leading that department.
Blairmont Community Centre will start as underdogs but being the giant killers that they are, having disposed of both Albion Community Centre and Edinburgh comfortably at home last week-end, anything can happen today.
Their batting will be spearheaded by the pair that steered them to victory against Albion in Karamdat Bissoondyal and Romesh Boodram along with Andrew Jainauth, Nedesh Basdeo, Deveshwari Prashad and Chris Patadin.
The bowling attack will be boosted by the return of Bess who will be backed by Basdeo who had a four wicket haul against Edinburgh, left arm spinner Parmanand Ramdhan and Wagar Hassan, pacers Deveshwari Prashad and Akram Rahaman and offspinner Shabeer Baksh.
The umpires officiating in the first semi-final are Imran Moakan and Rafik Latif while Zaheer Moakan and Sean Coonjah will be the men in charge of the second semifinal.