BETTER Hope ‘B’ produced a splendid effort to topple their senior counterparts and lift the East Coast Cricket Board (ECCB)-sponsored Elizabeth Styles 40-over first division title last Sunday. Played at the Better Hope Community Centre ground, the B team whipped the A team by 40 runs to much delight of the large crowd.
Asked to bat first, the B team were dismissed for 160 in 31 overs .Clive Rampersaud, who stroked three fours and two sixes, top-scored with 40.
He received support from Man-of-the-Match Jayadev Mana with a fighting 33. Sachin Singh contributed 23 to the total, while Roy Persaud and Rajendra Dhanraj made 22 each.
Left-arm pacer Azad Mohamed took 4-22 from eight impressive overs, while Ravi Singh (2-30) and Khan (2-30) were the successful bowlers for the A team.
In reply the A team were skittled out for 121 in 28.4 overs, despite a courageous 54 from Chris Deonarine.
Mana returned with the ball to bag 3-24. He got support from Daniel Kowlessar (3-23) and Sachin Singh (2-29) to send the ‘A’ team packing for 121 in 28-4 overs.
At the presentation ceremony, ECCB president Bissoondyal Singh thanked both teams for displaying such high quality of cricket.
Singh indicted that Elizabeth Styles, a USA-based cosmetic company will renew their sponsorship for another year.
“Elizabeth Styles is doing a wonderful job in supporting cricket not only on the East Coast but also in Berbice and today’s winners get $350 000, while the runners-up collect $50 000,” Singh informed.
Better Hope Sports Club president Jainarine Singh and ECCB executive Ray Barton also spoke after the match.