HAVING lost their first round game to Everest Cricket Club the previous day, the lowly rated Ace Warriors Cricket Club returned yesterday to the Guyana National Industrial Corporation (GNIC) ground to meet the home team in their second round Georgetown Cricket Association/New Building Society second division 40 overs a side contest.
This time, led by Levar Douglas’ 45 and Dellon Azore’s 4 for 30, Ace Warriors came out on top over their host by 48 runs, despite an attacking 81 from Ryan Shun.
In one of two other games played yesterday, Muslim Youth Organization handed University of Guyana their second defeat in as many matches, doing so by one run, after the University students were handed a shocking first round defeat at another lowly rated team in Sophia the previous day.
At the GNIC ground, Ace Warriors won the toss, took first strike and rattled up 224 for 8 off their 40 overs, with Douglas hitting four fours and three sixes in his topscore, receiving support from Mortland Ward 38 (4×4, 1×6), Keron George 31 (4×4), Afzal Gafoor 24 (3×4) and Christopher Duke 22 (3×4).
Marcello Mentore took 3 for 33 and Orlando Fraser 2 for 38 for GNIUC, who in their turn at the wicket were dismissed for 176 in 28.5 overs, as Azore weaved his way around the home team batsmen with his off spin.
Shun was one of three batsmen to stand out, hitting 12 fours and two sixes in his 81, but only Sheldon Chapman (17), national Under-15 vice captain Joshua Persaud (15) and Christopher Campbell with 13 managed to reach double figures, while Romario Nepaul supported Azore with his 2 for 20.
Meanwhile at the MYO ground, the home team batted first and posted 170 before being bowled out in 34.2 overs, with Richard Latiff 40, Navendra Persaud 23 and Shafeek Ishmael 20 showing resistance to the UG bowlers.
Ryan Mc Call took three wickets while there were 2 wickets each for Michael Shalim, Omesh Dhanram and Dennis Heywood bowling for UG, who in reply were limited to 167 for 9 when their overs expired, handing MYO victory by 3 runs.
Leon Williams topscored with 34 while Dhanram chipped in with 17, even as Imtiaz Puran took 4 for 20 and got support from Persaud and Latiff who took 2 wickets each for 20 and 45 runs respectively for MYO.
On the previous day, Sophia stunned UG with their 36 runs defeat, posting 102 all out when asked to bat first, with L. Griffin topscoring with 23, while V. Barrow made 19 and O. Barrow 15.
Lloyd George took 3 for 11, Heywood 2 for 16, Shalim 2 for 19 and Dhanram 2 for 26 for UG, who in their turn at the wicket were decimated for 66 in 13 overs, with only Dhanram 14 getting into double figures as D. Peters got 5 for 8, Griffin 3 for 19 and S. Steven 2 for 18 for Sophia.

(By Calvin Roberts)