DEFENDING champions Rose Hall Town Gizmos and Gadgets (RHTGG) rode on the back of skipper Shawn Pereira’s incisive spin bowling and Esaun Crandon’s patient batting to defeat their nemesis Albion Cricket Club by two wickets to take their eighth Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club-organised Busta ‘Champion of Champions’ title at the Area ‘H’ ground last Sunday.

A colourful crowd gathered at the venue to witness the action which was marred by controversy, after Albion’s opening batsman Kandasammy Surujnarine was given out for obstructing the field and Albion’s manager Vemen Walter called the other batsman Jonathan Foo in, bringing the game to a temporary halt.
It took the intervention of the club’s Chief Executive Officer/Secretary Hilbert Foster who pleaded with the umpires to reverse their decision, for the game to continue, but not before Walter demanded the five runs, after the ball ended up in the boundary following a deflection from Surujnarine’s bat.
Asked to bat first in the rain-reduced encounter, the visitors who had defeated their hosts in the 2011 Berbice Cricket Board/Tenelec final early last month, were bowled out for 140 from 33.3 overs, with Surujnarine top-scoring with 37 and Sewnarine Chattergoon 32, the pair adding 55 for the first wicket.
Pereira took 4 for 12 for his team, who reached 141 for 8 from 34.3 overs, thanks to Esaun Crandon, 29, Delbert Hicks 25, Rajiv Ivan 24 and Royston Crandon 22, against the bowling of Chattergoon, Gudakesh Motie-Kanhai and Devendra Bishoo who took two wickets each.
The visitors got a wonderful start thanks to their openers Chattergoon and Surujnarine who took the attack to the home team’s bowling, with the former hitting Clinton Pestano for two fours in one over, after he had struck Renwick Batson for his lone six.
A magnificent catch at backward point by Ivan accounted for Chattergoon in the 11th over, but not before he had added 55 for the first wicket with Surujnarine, who also saw the demise of Sharaz Ramcharran (10) and Bishoo (1), leaving Albion on 86 for 3, seven overs after Chattergoon was dismissed.
Foo joined Surujnarine and they took the score to 110 for 3, with Foo hitting Pestano back over his head for six, after being troubled by the two previous deliveries from the fiery fast bowler, before controversy stepped in and temporarily halted the game.
A Pestano free-hit was pulled to midwicket where Eon Hooper took the catch and fired his return to Hicks, with the ball going on to hit Surujnarine’s bat –  an act that was deemed willful, by the umpires who, on appeal from the RHTGG players, ruled the batsman out obstruction.
While the batsman walked away dejectedly, Walter called in Foo and many thought that was the end of the contest, until Foster intervened by asking the umpires to reverse their decision, while at the same time acceding to Walter’s request that the ensuing boundary be added to their total.
It made little or no difference to Albion’s batting lineup, as they crumbled from 119 for 3 to 140 all out, as Pereira who bowled in tandem with Shailendra Shameer (2 for7), Hooper (2 for 20) and Royston Crandon’s 2 for 22, ran through the visitors’ batting line-up like a hot knife through butter.
Asked to score at less than four runs an over to successfully defend their title against Albion’s spin-based bowling attack, RHTGG lost Dominique Rikhi (03) and Batson (9) to be 19 for 2, before Hicks, who struck two sixes and one four in his innings that took him 19 deliveries to accumulate, added 30 for the third wicket with Ivan.
Hicks struck both his sixes over backward square leg off Bishoo and Chattergoon, while Ivan also slog-swept Chattergoon for four and hit Motie-Kanhai back over his head with ease for his lone six, before he saw the demise of Hicks, who was lbw to Bishoo, after hitting the previous delivery from the bowler for four.
From 82 for 3, RHTGG slipped to 95 for 7, losing Royston Crandon who struck three fours in his 22, Ivan and Pereira (0) and Hooper (0) in that order, before Esaun Crandon was joined by Lloydel Lewis (16*) and they took the score to 139, with patient batting.
The elder Crandon tickled a delivery from Ramcharran to the vacant fine leg boundary for four, while Lewis used his feet well to get to the pitch of a delivery from Adrian Singh, driving same authoritatively past Bishoo at extra cover for his lone boundary.
Bishoo ran out of bowling options in his bid to remove Crandon and Lewis, with Pestano and Shameer waiting in the wings, thus he was forced to call on Ramcharran, Singh and Foo to try and get the job done.
Foo removed Esaun Crandon, but not before the bowler had pulled his first delivery to the midwicket boundary for four at 139 for 8, while Pestano sealed the win and the title for the defending champions, by turning Foo off his legs, sparking off wild celebrations and justifiably so, among his teammates and their supporters.
At the brief presentation ceremony that followed, Managing Director of the Guyana Beverage Company, Robert Selman, who along with his Marketing Manager Shamiza Yadram and their staff witnessed the day’s action, congratulated Foster for organising another successful tournament.
He did not hesitate to express his feelings, with regard to the controversy that occurred during the action and charged Foster and his organising team to play next year’s final at a neutral venue, following which he committed his Company’s sponsorship to the tournament for 2013.
Chattergoon was named man-of-the-match, Surujnarine the Best Batsman and Pereira the Best Bowler, while Albion took home $50 000 and RHTGG $100 000 and a trophy. NCN Radio carried a live broadcast of the day’s action.