THANKS to a resilient ton from opener Robin Williams, backed by a pugnacious half century from Alphius Bookie, Guyana Under-15 yesterday defeated the touring United States of America Cricket Association Academy Under-15 line up by 181 runs at the Police Sports Club ground Eve Leary.At the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground in Queenstown, USACA Under-18 were bowled out for 113 in 31.1 overs against their counterparts from the East Bank Demerara Cricket Association (EBCDA)< who in reply were tottering on 70 for 9 before reaching 119 without further loss from 36.3 overs.

At Eve Leary, the Guyanese who are the reigning West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional Under-15 champions, were asked to bat first in glorious sunshine and posted 297 for 5 from their 50 overs, thanks to Williams’ 120 and 86 from Bookie.
The duo added 163 for the third wicket, after Williams and Garfield Benjamin (24) had earlier posted 78 for the second wicket following the early departure of Orlando Jailall (06) in the second over at 9 for 1.
The burly looking Williams, who started slowly posted is first 50 from 71 balls with five fours and celebrated with a six over long on, off the bowling of Sanjay Jonathan, before he lost Benjamin who was caught at the wicket by Nand Kishan Das off Pradeep Ravi (1 for 27).
With a positive looking Bookie at the other end, Williams grew in confidence and used his feet well to the slow bowlers to hit Jonathan and Ronak Patel for maximums, even as Bookie joined the act by hitting Praneel Jadhav over midwicket for his first of three sixes, to post his 50.
He faced 46 balls, seven of which he had struck for four, as Guyana reached 196 for 2, with Williams posting his ton off 114 balls with seven fours and four sixes shortly after, while the scoreboard read Guyana Under-15 210 for 2 in the 37th over.
The re-introduction of Humzah Babar Khan, saw the demise of both Bookie-caught by Michael Katwaroo at long off (76balls, 11×4, 3×6)-and Williams who spooned a catch back to the left arm bowler after posting 120 off 139 balls with nine fours and four sixes, Guyana Under-15 262 for 4.
The visitors removed a rampant looking Ashmead Nedd 19 (15balls, 2×4; 1×6) via the run out route at 280 for 5 in the penultimate over, but some positive hitting from Kevlon Anderson 11 and Adrian Hinds 7 carried Guyana Under-15 to their final total of 297 for 5.
Babar Khan took 2 for 62 to be the best bowler on show for the visitors, who through the hitting of Das and Jadhav, raced to 43 without loss from seven overs, with Das hitting both opening bowlers in Bequan Bamfield and Haifa Walters for boundaries.
As was customary throughout their matches, the introduction of the slower bowlers saw the demise of the visitor’s batting lineup and yesterday was no different, following the introduction of Kelvin Omroa and Seon Glasgow in the 10th and 11th over of their innings respectively.
Das was first to go, lbw to Walters at 43 for 1 in the 8th over, which quickly became 77 for 9 in the 21st over as Glasgow who finished with 4 for 21 and Omroa (2 for 25) ran through their middle order without much resistance.
They accounted for Jadhav (09), along with Ravi, Aman Patel, Daoud Mohammed, Aamir Salim, Babar Khan and Katwaroo, who were all dismissed without scoring, before Ronak Patel (01) broke the sequence of ducks with his edged single to third man.
When Glasgow induced Ronak Patel to hit one back to him, many opined that the visitors would not make Bookie’s individual score, but Jonathan opened his shoulders to hit three fours and a six off Omroa who had no ball problems, to push the score past the 100 run mark in the 28th over.
But in his bid to hit Anderson somewhere over the top, he got a thick outside edge which Nedd at slip held onto to close off the contest, leaving Rishil Patel unbeaten on 1,as the Guyanese followed up their five wicket win the previous day, with another victory.
Meanwhile, across at the Demerara Cricket Club ground, USACA Under-18 batted first and were bowled out for 113 in 31.1 overs in their contest against the East Bank Under-18 lineup, with Jash Patel 31 (3×4, 1×6), Jamiel Jackman 11 (2×4) and Sagar Patel 10 (2×4) being the lone batsmen to reach double figures.
Ershad Ali took 4 for 16 and Daniel Barker 3 for 18 for EBDCA Under-18 who lost wickets rapidly to the bowling of Gauranshu Sharma (4 for 31) and Sahil Patel (3 for 27) to be 70 for 9, before Troy Domingo and Bhojnarine Singh who were unbeaten on 19 and 17 respectively, guided them to their one wicket victory.
Earlier, Sagar Hetheramani made 14 (1×4) and Sheldon Chapman 13 (1×4, 1×6), but it was not enough to steer their side away from the perils that greeted them, until Domingo who struck two fours and one six and Singh (1×6), steered them to the win.
By Calvin Roberts