A brilliant century from national Under 17 cricketer Kevin Sinclair and an outstanding all-round performance from another junior national player, Junior Sinclair powered Rose Hall Town Pepsi Under 19-team into the finals of BCB/New York Business Group Under-19 Cricket Tournament. Sinclair blasted an unbeaten 116 while Junior Sinclair took 5 wickets and returned with the bat to score 63 as Rose Hall Town Pepsi defeated a shell shocked Young Warriors by 9 wicket at the Albion Ground in the second semi-finals of the tournament.
Albion had earlier in the week defeated Blairmont to advance to the finals which would be played on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th of October at the Albion Ground.
Young Warriors won the toss in blazing sunshine and elected to take first strike.
Openers,Alex Algoo and Ricardo Ramdehol added ten runs before Ramdehol was caught behind by Revoldo Williams off pacer Sylus Tyndall for nought in the 3rd over. Jaron France (1) and Kristoff Bahadur (0) both fell early to leave their team in early trouble at 30 for 3 in the 6th over.
However,national junior player Alex Algoo stroked an attractive 73 with nine boundaries while an aggressive Sase Sukhoo blasted 71 runs with six boundaries and three massive sixes to revive their team.
Trevon Stamslans clipped in with a quiet 21 as Young warriors reached 196 all out from 46 of the allotted 50 overs in their first innings. Bowling for Rose Hall Town Pepsi – Junior Sinclair claimed 5 wickets for 33 runs.He received support from Sylus Tyndall 2 for 40 and Kevlon Anderson 2 for 30.
In response, the Rose Hall Pepsi openers,Kevin and Junior Sinclair took the visitors bowling apart in adding 163 for the first wicket off just 29 overs before Junior Sinclair was caught off A. Ramsammy for a composed 63 with five boundaries. National player Kevlon Anderson joined Kevin Sinclair and they took their team to victory by adding an unbeaten 38 for the second wicket. Sinclair was unbeaten on a classy 116 off 96 balls with 15 boundaries. A. Ramsammy was the only successful bowler for Young Warriors with 1 for 51.
The finals between Albion and Rose Hall Town Pepsi promises to be an exciting event with two evenly matched teams. Albion would be depending heavily on home advantage on a pitch tailor-made for spin bowling. The home teams’ effort would be spearheaded by Adrian Sukwah, Joshua Harrichan, Kelvin Umroa, Ritesh Umroa, Matthew Haridyal, Josiah Dhanai, Stephen Kelimudeen and Karan Arpaul. Rose Hall Town Pepsi would be spearheaded by B. Yadram, Kevin Sinclair, Kevlon Anderson, Brandon Prashad, Junior Sinclair, Brandon Corlette, Keith Simpson, Sylus Tyndall, Revoldo Williams, Surendra Budhoo, David Prahalad, Simon Naidu and Joel Pike.
Umpires for the finals,which bowls off at 10am,are Zaheer Moakan, Imran Moakan and Joseph Simon. The winning team would take home $100,000.00 and a trophy while the runner-up would receive $50,000.00 along with a runner-up trophy. The Man-of-the-finals along with the best bowler would each receive $10,000.00 and trophies. Each team in the finals would also receive T/Shirts from the New York Business Group. The tournament is being organised by the Berbice Cricket Board with sponsorship obtained by the Albion Cricket Club from a group of Guyanese businessmen residing in the New York area.