THE Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) annual Inter-County four-day competition got under way yesterday and Demerara immediately took control of their battle against Essequibo while the President’s XI versus Berbice match hangs in the balance.

At the Everest Cricket Club (ECC) ground in overcast conditions, Essequibo took first strike and were bowled out for 167 in 48.3 overs. Demerara in reply romped to 103-3 at stumps.
Chanderpaul Hemraj and Vishal Singh are the overnight batsmen on six and three runs respectively.
Over at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground,  the  President’s XI also winning the toss and taking first strike were 182 all out in 70.4 overs.
They lost their final wicket with only five minutes of play remaining in the day, which was cloudy.
A rain interruption caused the match to be delayed for some time since the pitch was drenched by a considerable amount of rain and had to be treated by the ground staff.
At Everest, Demerara got off to a firm start compliments of Robin Bacchus (35) and Rajendra Chandrika (28).
Bacchus went leg-before-wicket (lbw) to Royon Fredericks with the score on 66 and Chandrika went lbw to Anthony Adams soon after with the score on 78.
The new batsmen in the middle then were Shemroy Barrington and Hemraj.
Barrington played aggressively but was dismissed on 19, lbw to Adams. Singh joined Hemraj and gave an early chance but it was not taken by Essequibo’s slip catcher.
Earlier in the day, the Essequibians struggled against the Demerara bowling attack and were 95 for 6 at one point. Their top order contributions came from Dillon Heyliger (22), Ricardo Adams (18) and Herrell Green (23).
The lower order staged a fightback as Vijay Surujpaul made a much welcome 40 while Adams pitched in with 25.
Kellon Carmichael finished with 3-35, Totaram Bishun grabbed 3-28, Amir Khan claimed 2-32 while Bacchus and Zaheer Mohammed picked up a wicket each.
Meanwhile at DCC Tagnarine Chanderpaul top-scored for President’s XI with 50 alongside his opening partner Krishna Arjune who made 49. These two put on 80 runs for the first wicket.
Notable performances came from Eugene La Fleur (37) and Anthony Bramble (22) while no other batsman reached double figures.
Gudakesh Motie was the pick of the bowlers for Berbice with 3-28 while Clinton Pestiano finished with 3-55 and Keon Joseph 2–37.
The action continues today with  a 09:30hrs start at both venues.