HOSTS Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) and the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) completed contrasting wins in the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA)-sponsored New Building Society (NBS) second division 40 overs cricket tournament yesterday.

At DCC, the home team recorded a 21-run win over Transport Sports Club while GCC had the better over Malteenoes Sports Club by 15 runs. 

For DCC, number ten batsman Carlton Jacques Jr and West Indies Under-19 left-arm spinner Ashmead Nedd, were the main contributors.

Winning the toss and deciding to bat first, DCC top and middle-order batsmen failed, with only Shamar Yearwood (17), and Jahron Byron (19), getting to double figures. However, Jacques Jr. then played an innings of great enterprise but also of great substance to lift his side to 178 all out at the end of the 39th over.

Jacques Jr, batting at No. 10, eventually went for 89 with six sixes and three fours, but he and Dexter George (21), had, by then, demoralised the visiting team’s bowling attack, and lifted the momentum of the innings somewhat.

For the visitors, left-arm spinner Joel Spooner (4-21) was the chief destroyer. He received support from Kevin Ross (2-35), Akeem Redman (2-28) and Morris Baptiste (1-13).

The run chase always seemed a huge task, and in the end it proved to be so, with TSC being bowled out for 157 with more than six overs left.

They lost openers Adrian Hinds (5), and Redman without scoring very early in the run chase to Qumar Torrington and Nkosi Beaton respectively, but Sunil Singh and Jamal Wilson engineered a superb recovery, which took the game away from the hosts.

The duo added 88 runs for the third wicket with Singh the main donor to the scoreboard, hitting 69 with nine fours and a six before he went to Nedd, at 93-3.  

At that point, Wilson was joined by Alvin Mohabir, and the pair took the total to 144. Wilson was trapped leg-before to Nedd for 40 (4×4, 2×6). Thereafter, the innings folded, with TSC losing their last six wickets for just 13 runs.

Nedd eventually finished with figures of 4-27, while leg-spinner Steven Sankar had two wickets.

At the Malteenoes Sports Club ground, the home team won the toss and decided to bowl first after the game was reduced to 27 overs-a-side due to an early morning shower.

However, wayward bowling and some poor fielding saw the visiting side pose 184-8. GCC slipped to 54-3, at one point of the innings before Timothy McAlmont, who top-scored with 74 and Bernard Baily (21), joined forces.

The pair then took the total to 116, a fourth-wicket stand which was dominated by the right-hander McAlmont, who struck seven fours and four sixes.

Stephon Wilson contributed an attractive 30 towards the backend of the innings, with a four and three sixes. Nichosie Barker (2-31) and Akeem Critchlow (2-25) were the best bowlers for the hosts.

The run chase was reduced to 30-3, but Jerimiah Scott then single-handedly took the game away from the visiting side with a 65-ball 97, which included ten sixes and three fours.

At that point of the game, victory was well in sight for the hosts. However, Scott’s dismissal at 151 saw the innings fold for 169 all out in 26.5 overs.

Shaquille Mosley (21), and Marcus Watkins (12), were the only two other batsmen to reach double digit. It was a complete bowling effort from the eventual winners with Duncan Clarke, Deonarine Seegobin and McAlmont, all claiming two wickets apiece while there was a wicket for Wilson and Krsan Singh.

The tournament continues today.