– Despite Noble 5-19

By Rajiv Bisnauth
DEMERARA won the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/Dave West Indian Exports Guy-NY Inter-county Under-15 tournament in controversial and tense circumstances, as Daniel Mootoo effected a `Mankad’ to claim the last Berbice wicket – that of Nikeem Noble – with four runs needed to win.Mootoo ran through to the bowling crease without entering his delivery stride and broke the stumps, catching non-striker Noble a fraction out of his ground.
Standing umpire Edward Bowen confirmed that the dismissal was within the rules of the game.
Chasing a relatively gettable target of 139, left-arm spinner Michael Puran (4-14) and off-spinner Andre Seepersaud (3-10), spun webs around the Berbice batsmen as they were eventually bundled out for 135 in 42.3 overs.
Earlier, left-arm spinner Noble caused a dramatic Demerara collapse when he grabbed 5-19 to help bowl out Demerara for 138 in 43.3 overs.
After winning the toss, the hosts opted to bat first under murky conditions,as openers Sachin Singh and Shoaib Shaw put together 48 runs for the first wicket. But the introduction of off-spinner Aaron Beharry (1-35) immediately saw the dismissal of Shaw for 20.
Singh in company with Yudister Persaud then took Demerara’s total to 81 before Singh, who fought a lone battle was removed by medium-pacer Leon Swammy (2-15) for a well-played 78-ball 42.
That quickly became 81-3 as Andrew Samaroo (2) departed as Swammy struck once more. Samaroo’s dismissal started the slide as the rest of the batsmen failed to stitch together a noteworthy stand as wickets kept falling.
Left-arm spinner Nigel Deodat (1-26) dismissed Dwayne Dick for five, before Noble, finding bounce and turn, dried up the scoring significantly in the middle overs and put pressure on the middle and lower orders and his seven-over spell proved incisive.

Noble claimed the wickets of Persaud (29), Andre Seepersaud (0), along with Hemnauth Dindyal (6) and Michael Puran (0) with consecutive balls before the rain intervened.
After the short break, Noble removed Daniel Mootoo (0) to complete his five-wicket haul and the hat-trick before Seon Glasgow (1-27) wrapped up the innings with the wicket of Daniel Paul (12).
In the chase, Berbice lost the early wickets of Fawaz Gafoor (0) and Marvan Prashad (2) to pacer Paul (22-14) at 17-2.
However, Jerron France was standing like a rock at the other end and together with Glasgow added 41 runs.
Puran and Seepersaud then struck three crucial blows, including France for a composed 47 to regain firm advantage with 33 runs still for victory.
Puran removed Glasgow (22) and Chanderpaul Govindar (10), while Seepersaud accounted for France, who had played freely, hitting six fours.
Gevon Shultz and Deodat then reduced the winning target to 16 runs when Puran bowled the latter for eight.
Thereafter, Berbice slipped further, losing Shultz (22), Carl Gilgeous (0), Beharry (0) and Noble (0) to give Demerara a fighting victory.
At the presentation ceremony, Noble was given the Man-of-the-Match award, while Sachin Singh (192 runs) won the batsman’s award for the most runs in the tournament (192) and Amos Sarwan (10) won the bowers’ award for the most wickets in the tournament.