THE Everest Cricket Club rebounded from a below-par U-17 performance in the Georgetown Cricket Association 100-over competition to challenge the winners of that tournament, the Georgetown Cricket Club, in the opener of the GCA Noble House Seafoods Generation Next U-19 100-over cricket competition.

In Saturday’s encounter, half-centuries from Ushardeva Balgobin and S. Premchand propelled the home team to 269 in 53.3 overs, while GCC, in reply, reached 213-6 before their overs (46.3) expired, which resulted in a draw.

Most of the teams in the competition have stuck with their core group of young cricketers and like the previous competition, if a team bats out its allotted overs with wickets in hand, despite the score, the game ends in a draw.

Although the Everest pair batted themselves in, several of their teammates had starts. In fact, the solid batting started from the opening pair of Premchand and Ariel Tilku (13) which propelled the side to 46 for the first wicket.

When Tilku fell, Premchand and Raynaldo Mohamed (11) pushed the score to 94, with the former dominating. In total, the opener hit six fours and two sixes in a score of 51.
Balgobin, who batted in the middle, was also aggressive. He scored 81 runs from 67 balls after hitting seven fours and five sixes. He added 63 runs for the sixth wicket with A. Beharry (29).

Zachary Jodah, Darrius Andrews and Mavendra Dindyal took two wickets each for the visitors.

R.Phillips led GCC with an aggressive 48 (3x4s, 3x6s), while young skipper Jodah, who was patient while batting through the latter stages of the game, added 31. L. Seeram and Dindyal, who tallied 42 for the second wicket, also had starts. Seeram scored 23, while the West Indies U-16 batsman, Dindyal, added 29.

Seechand finished with two wickets, while Tilku, Mohamed, Balgobin and Beharry finished with a wicket each.