THANKS to Ronaldo Renee’s resilient half-century, coupled with disciplined bowling that was backed by excellent fielding, underdogs West Demerara upset tournament favourites Georgetown by recording a shocking 21-run victory at the Everest Cricket Club ground yesterday.

The two sides met in the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) Inter-Association Under-17 50 overs tournament, which also saw East Coast Demerara hand East Bank Demerara their second loss, following their five-wicket victory at the Police Sports Club ground.
At Everest, West Demerara, whose Under-19 team had won the DCB Inter-Association title earlier this year, won the toss and batted first on a slow track and heavy outfield, compiling 148 for 6 from their 50 overs.
Renee led their batting with 52, scored off 137 deliveries and included the lone four struck during his side’s innings, off Clitus Johnson in the 32nd over of the contest. Extras contributed 34 valuable runs and Chetnarine Pooran, 21, to West Demerara’s total.
Renee and Pooran added 63 for the third wicket, pushing the score from 57 for 2 in the 24th over to 120 for 3 in the 44th, after Shamar Graham who ended with 4 for 17 from his 10 overs, threatened to run through the opposition batting.
When Georgetown, who recorded a comfortable nine-wicket victory over East Bank the previous day began their reply, they lost wickets at regular intervals and despite skipper Sherfane Rutherford’s responsible 42 (4×4, 64 balls), Hardat Singh 19 (2×4) and Shemar DeSouza 18, they were bowled out for 127 from 47.2 overs.
Daniel Basdeo and Krishram Seyhodan took 2 wickets each for 23 and 26 runs respectively for West Demerara, with Basdeo, starting the next game on a hat-trick, having dismissed both Daniel Chunilall (8) and Ewart Samuels (0) off successive deliveries to hand his team the win.
At the PSC, East Bank, who were bowled out for 64 by Georgetown in their first round encounter, fared better after choosing to bat first against East Coast, rattling up 177 for 9 from their 50 overs, with Navendra Seoraj hitting an unbeaten 52 (2×6, 2×4), Vanyus Kissoon 29 (4×4) and Dextroy Williams 28 (4×4).
Daniel Walker and Steven Mangal took 2 wickets each for East Coast, who, thanks to National Under-15 skipper Bhaskar Yadram’s 66 (3×4), along with Mangal and Sahadeo Ramkellawan who both scored 29 each with two fours apiece, reached 178 for 5 from 45.4 overs, with I. Alli taking 3 wickets for East Bank.
The action continues today at Everest, with West Demerara looking for their second win when they face East Coast from 09:00hrs while tomorrow’s final-round matchup will see Georgetown take on East Coast at Police and West Demerara face East Bank at Everest.
At the end of this tournament, the Demerara Under-17 team will be selected to compete in the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Inter-County Under-17 tournament, from which the national team will be selected to play in the West Indies Cricket Board’s Regional Under-17 tournament.