ANOTHER man-of-the-match performance from Romario Shepherd-DeJonge, coupled with inept batting from Demerara, enabled GT&T Berbice to humble their opponents by 99 runs at the Albion Community Centre ground yesterday.

The two were meeting in a first-round clash of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/GTM Under-19 Inter-County limited overs tournament, in which the hosts batted first and scored 228 for 6, with Shepherd-DeJonge hitting a responsible 89, before they bowled out their opponents for 129 inside 46 overs.
At the Everest Cricket Club ground, the President’s XI batted and were bowled out for 150, with Ryan Shun stroking five fours and one six in his top score of 44 while Garfield De Rouche offered support with 29 (2×6, 1×4).
In reply, Essequibo’s batting faltered and they were routed for 119 inside 26.5 overs, with Rajiv Balgobin 28 (2×6, 1×4), skipper Ricardo Adams 27 and Andy Dass 23, being their leading batsmen as Mark Hamilton continued to impress with his left-arm spin, taking 4 for 31.
At Albion, GT&T Berbice, who lost the three-day version of this competition to Demerara, won the toss and opting to bat in hazy conditions, got off to a sedate start, with Shepherd-DeJonge who faced 114 deliveries and hitting six fours in his 89, adding 56 for the first wicket with Devin Baldeo who made 16.
They posted their team’s first 50 in 13.1 overs, before Baldeo was stumped by Kemol Savory off the bowling of Kamesh Yadram, a wicket that brought Sharaz Ramcharran to the wicket. He added 89 for the second wicket with Shepherd-DeJonge.
The muscular Shepherd-DeJonge twice struck Shivram Persaud for four in the 10th over of his team’s innings, even as the Demerara bowling lineup kept a stranglehold on the home team’s innings, before he realized his 50 with back-to-back boundaries off Devon Lord, taking 60 balls to reach that personal target, with four of them being hit for fours.
At the other end, Ramcharran was content on offering the strike to the Memorex Bermine player, who later lost his wicket through a direct hit from Brian Sattaur at midwicket, leaving GT&T Berbice on 145 for 2 in the 38th over.
They fell away briefly, losing the wickets of Parmanand Narine (14) and Shailendra Shameer (1), before Ramcharran and David Latchaya 26 (16 balls; 3×4) added 36 for the fifth wicket, while Ramcharran, whose unbeaten 58 took him 95 balls to accumulate, added 21 with Deryck Narine 4 in their unbroken seventh-wicket partnership.
Lord, Yadram and Steven Sankar took 1 wicket each for 31, 37 and 48 runs respectively for Demerara, who in their reply slipped to 13 for 2 in just the third over of their innings, losing the prized wickets of Tagenarine Chanderpaul who was run-out for 6 and Brain Sattaur who offered Shepherd-DeJonge a return catch for 7.
GT&T Berbice employed a pace/spin combination for the first 30 overs of Demerara’s response, with a tired-looking Ramcharran keeping one end tight, bowling his 10 overs on a trot while conceding 21 runs, with four maidens, three of them consecutively.
Yadram who top-scored with 40 (88 balls, 4×4) and Andrew Gibson 20 (60 balls, 2×4) tried to repair the damage, by adding an even 50 for the third wicket, with Yadram hitting his opposite number Shawn Pereira, Ramcharran and Suresh Dhanai for boundaries.
After realising their 50-run partnership, Gibson, who also struck Pereira for a well-timed four back along the ground,, picked out Kevon Jahawir at mid off, in his attempt to hit Shameer (4 for 30) over that position.
From there onwards was a steady procession by the Demerara batsmen, who lost the services of Yadram, when he holed out to Ramcharran at long off, also off Shameer who together with Jahawir and Narine who both ended with two wickets each for 9 and 21 runs respectively, routed their opponents easily.
Over at the Everest Cricket Club ground, President’s XI batted and were bowled out for 150 in 45 overs, as Adams and Julio Jones picked up two wickets each for 20 and 26 runs respectively for Essequibo.
In Essequibo’s reply, Dass’ cameo innings saw the batsman smash three fours and a six in his score of 23, but Hamilton got valuable support from Vishal Narayan and De Rouche who picked up two wickets each, with de Rouche being named Man-of-the-Match.
The action continues today with two more matches that will see GT&T Berbice take on the President’s XI at the Demerara Cricket Club ground, while Demerara and Essequibo will do battle at the Everest Cricket Club ground, both matches commencing at 09:30hrs.