Permaul and Surujnarine see Albion through to the final

DEFENDING CHAMPIONS Albion Community Centre became the first team to reach the final of this year’s Berbice Cricket Board/Carib Beer first division T20 cricket competition, when they defeated D’Edward in their play-off encounter last Sunday.In the match which was played at Albion, D’Edward won the toss and elected to bat first, following which Romesh Boodram and Eon Abel posted 25 for the opening stand in 4 overs, before national Under-19 off-spinner Balchand Baldeo and Veerasammy Permaul had double strikes to leave them on 42 for 4.
It soon became 42 for 5, a position which did not improve and struggled to 74 for 9 from their 20 overs, with Romesh Boodram topscoring with 24 while Abel made 6, as Permaul took 3 for 14, Baldeo 2 for 10 and Narsingh Deonarine 2 for 20.
Albion Community Centre, in their reply, were given a good start of 40 runs by their openers, the in-form Anthony Bramble and Kandasammy Surujnarine, before Bramble fell to medium pacer Navin Rampersaud for 21 which gave him a total of 282 runs at an average of 70.6 so far in the competition.
Rampersaud picked up two more wickets, in Deonarine for 7 and Jonathan Foo for 5 but by then it was too late as Albion coasted to 77 for 4 in 9.5 overs, with Surujnarine steering them to victory with his unbeaten 38.
The team to challenge Albion in the final for this year’s championship will be known after the semi-final between Young Warriors and Universal Solutions Bermine on Sunday at Port Mourant.