A fine all-round performance from Jeffery Blair and a good spell of leg-spin bowling from 11-year-old Riyad Latif spurred the Transport Sports Club to a 28-run win over the Demerara Cricket Club when action continued yesterday in the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) Friends of Cricket Hundred Overs U-17 tournament at the MYO ground.

DCC won the toss in a reduced game (28/22) and sent in Transport to take first strike. A few players reached double figures, including Shamar Yearwood 12 (2x4s), Rashidi Benjamin 14 (1×6), and Nabeel Ali 10 (2x4s), but they did not bat themselves in.
Blair, who has shown good form in recent games, then stabilised the innings with some exquisite strokes. He struck three fours and a straight-six in a game-high score of 24, to see his team to 99-9 off their allotted 28 overs.

Left-arm spinner Daniel Mootoo, who did the damage to the middle and lower order with three wickets in one over, finished with four wickets for 25 runs from five overs, while opening bowler Kadeem Parris, who got the wicket of Blair, finished with 3-29 from six overs.

Needing to score 100 runs for victory in 22 overs, DCC were on the back-foot from the first over after Ezekiel Wilson lost his wicket without scoring.
Transport were able to make inroads into the DCC’s batting order via the bowling of Blair and his skipper, Alvin Mohabir, before Latif cleaned up the tail.

The little leg-spinner flighted the ball without fear and was rewarded with four lower order wickets, and took a stinging return catch to dismiss Parris (2) which ended the innings in 15.4 overs.

Latif finished with figures of 4-20 from five overs while Blair, who also bowled five overs, picked up 3-23.