A thrilling one-wicket win against the Muslim Youth Organisation (MYO) at the DCC ground ended with the Georgetown Cricket Club booking a place in the final of the GCA/ NBS Second-Division 40-over cricket competition.

GCC will now meet Everest in the championship clash on a date to be announced.

In the day/night semi-final on Sunday, MYO won the toss and opted to bat.  They had a positive start, with Rudolph Singh and Shafiek Ishmael putting together 57 for the first wicket. Singh struck six fours in a 39-ball 28, while Ishmael, who took eight balls to get off the mark, made a 37-ball 25 (4x4s). 

Both batsmen, however, fell to Stephen Wilson.

GCC skipper Devon Lord (left arm-spin) then took control of the middle order. He and Gavin Singh accounted for the next five wickets, with only Richard Latif, who hit four boundaries in a 22-ball 20, reaching double figures.

Vinash Rampersaud then contributed an aggressive knock towards the end of the innings. His 47 runs included five fours and two sixes.  The number eight batsman looked set to make his half-century, but he misjudged the line of pacer Carlos La Rose and was bowled, which ended the innings at 176 in 36.1 overs. 

La Rose took the last three wickets to finish with 3-16 from 3.1 over, while Lord, who bowled his quota of eight overs, ended with 3-45. Singh and Wilson finished with 2-24 and 2-29 respectively.

GCC needed to score just under 4.5 runs for victory, but their time in the middle was no walk in the park as Chien ‘Saheed’ Gittens took control.

The opening pacer bagged the wickets of Winston Forrester and Deonarine Seegobin, which left GCC at 25-2, but a few shots by West Indies U-16 cricketer, Mavindra Dindyal (14) and Timothy McAlmont (21), stablised the innings before Ronaldo Alimohamed took over.

The former West Indies U-19 cricketer struck a four off the first ball of his innings and then began playing shots all over the ground.  In total, he finished with seven fours and three sixes in a score of 62, but at the other end, wickets were still tumbling. Gittens returned and took two other wickets before he had Alimohamed caught behind.

MYO sensed victory when Joshua Wade fell to Ismael for six with the score on 154-9, but Bernard Bailey and Wilson then added an unbeaten 23-run last wicket stand to see their team home in 31.3 overs.

Gittens finished with 5-32 from eight overs, while Timore Mohamed supported with 2-37 from eight.