A KEEN and exciting tussle can be anticipated over the next three days – weather permitting – when defending champions GT&T Berbice and points leaders Demerara battle in the final round of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/GTM Under-19 Inter-County three-day competition at the Demerara Cricket Club ground.

At the Wales Community Centre ground, perennial whipping boys Essequibo, who so far have lost both of their matches to Demerara and Berbice, will look to save some face when they oppose the President’s XI in the other encounter.
However, all eyes will be on the contest at the venue which harnessed the skills of such great West Indies players as the late Andrew Lyght Sr, former Guyana and West Indies skipper Clive Lloyd, Lance Gibbs, Roger and Mark Harper and Guyana’s latest Indian Premier League player Christopher Barnwell.
Demerara have 31.5 points while their opponents sit in the runner-up position on 22.5 points and with the fast bowlers earning their respective teams half-a-point for every wicket taken during this tournament, the focus will definitely shift to GT&T Berbice’ Romario Shepherd-DeJonge and Suresh Dhanai.
Shivram Persaud, Dexter George, Bernard Bailey and Deonarine Seegobin are the fast bowlers in the Demerara lineup, who will no doubt be looking to strengthen their team’s grip at the top of the leader board, when the dust is settled on this phase of the tournament next Monday evening.
But it is the spinners who have been doing the damage on a consistent basis throughout the competition for all four teams, with skipper Shawn Pereira, Gudakesh Motie-Kanhai and Shailendra Shameer representing GT&T Berbice very well.
For Demerara, their skipper Kamesh Yadram, along with Steven Sankar, Devon Lord, Stephon Browne, Kevin Paul and to an extent Tagenarine Chanderpaul, who wears the tag of the lone first class player in the tournament, has been putting his hands up to be counted.
Chanderpaul and the pugnacious Brian Sattaur are expected to give the home team a solid start for their middle order which includes Yadram, Andrew Gibson, Chandrika Persaud, Kemol Savory and to an extent Lord, George and Bailey who are no rabbits with the bat, to build on.
On the other side of the coin, GT&T Berbice boasts a powerful batting lineup, led by Ashkay Homraj, Devin Baldeo, Sharaz Ramcharran, David Latchaya, Deryck Narine, Kevon Jahawir and even Shepherd-DeJonge, are all useful customers with the bat, making this contest much more exciting to witness.
Cyril Garnath and Gavin Sukhdeo are the men calling play in this fixture, with Randolph Rose as the standby official.
For the Ricardo Adams-led Essequibo lineup, there is nothing to play for but pride, since they have been inconsistent with their performances so far, both in the batting and fielding department, even though Herry Greene has been a thorn in the sides of his team’s opponents.
Greene has two five-wicket hauls against GT&T Berbice and Demerara, the two powerhouse teams in the tournament and should he cash in heavily against the President’s XI in this final round fixture with another five-wicket haul, his ticket for St Kitts would be all but confirmed.
Adams and Ricardo Peters have been leading their team’s batting, with support from Avenash Persaud, Rajiv Balgobin and Julio Jones, but more is needed if they intend to get past a President’s XI lineup that is made up of players who found it difficult to make their Inter-county lineup.
Such players are skipper Keon Morris, Vishal Narayan, Martin Pestano-Belle, Ryan Shun, Anthony Bhupdeo, Hakeem Hinds, Nial Smith who is expected to replace Yenkini Favorite, Arif Chan and last year’s National Under-19 wicketkeeper/batsman Dinesh Mangal while Mark Hamilton provides worthy support with the ball in the bowling department.
S. Coonjah and Zaheer Mohammed will supervise the action in the middle, with Heuvel Cunha executing the duties of third umpire. Both contests are scheduled to commence at 10:00hrs, weather permitting.
Below is the list of each team:
President’s XI team reads: Akshaya Persaud (captain), Ryan Shun, Rajiv Balgobin, Asif Alehi, Dinesh Mangal, Anthony Bhupdeo, Vishal Narayan, Martin Pestano-Bell, Yenkini Favourite, Arif Chan, Hakeem Hinds, Nial Smith, Mark Hamilton, Devon George, and Akesh Jagroo. The coach is Adrian Amsterdam and the manager is David Black.

Demerara team from: Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Brian Sattaur, Chandrika Persaud, Deonarine Seegobin, Andrew Gibson, Kamesh Yadram (captain), Kemol Savory, Steven Sankar, Devon Lord, Stephon Browne, Dexter George, Bernard Bailey, Kevin Paul and Shivram Persaud. The coach is Quason Nedd and the manager is Robert ‘Pacer’ Adonis.

GT&T Berbice from: Shawn Perreira (captain), Nick Ramsaroop, Devin Baldeo, Parmanand Narine, Sharaz Ramcharran, Ashkay Homraj (wkp..), Kevon Jawahir, Derek Narine, David Latchaya, Shailendra Shameer, Gudakesh Motie-Kanhai, Suresh Dhanai, and Romario Shepherd-DeJonge.

Essequibo from: Ricardo Adams (captain), Ricardo Peters, Mark Gonsalves, Herry Greene, Mohamed Hassan, Rajiv Balgobin, Mahendra Balbadar, Avinash Persaud, Andy Dass, Kesho Rooplall, Dexter Williams, Placid Edwards, Julio Jones, Raj Parbattie and Shivindra Hemraj. Forbes Daniels will execute the duties of coach.