crushing 141-run win for Georgetown

By Clifton Ross

SKIPPER Leon Johnson reminded the masses of his class after his magical century sealed an emphatic 141 run win for Georgetown in yesterday’s match against East Bank.

The Bourda ground was more kind to Georgetown which snapped their 4-match losing streak to pile up a mammoth 292-6 in 50 overs, with the captain stealing the show with a throwback innings of 104 from 111 deliveries, decorated with 9 eye-catching fours.
All-rounder Chris Barnwell narrowly missed a half-century as he clobbered three fours and as many sixes in his whirlwind 49 from 34 balls.

A resistant knock of 60 from Captain Vishal Singh was the highlight of the East Bank innings. The former Windies Test player was rock solid as usual, hitting a single boundary during his stay.

Coupled with 40 from Yudister Persaud, the visitors could only muster 151-5 when their overs expired as the Georgetown bowlers did well to share the wickets.
During the chase, centurion from the last game, Trevon Griffith, gifted his wicket to good mate Barnwell, but not before smoking three fours and a six in a blistering knock of 20.
Further inroads brought Singh to the crease, and he worked extremely hard for his half-century but the mountain of runs proved to be too much, even with their Skipper batting out the innings with 5 wickets in hand.

Earlier, Georgetown’s Winston Forrester was promoted up the order and hit three fours before falling to Kishan Singh (2-52), the most successful bowler.

Former West Indies U-19 youth batsman Joshua Persaud, also shook his scratchy form to hit 24 from 28, finding the boundary on three occasions but also failed to carry on.
Johnson, the 5-time Regional 4-Day title winning skipper, finally made amends for his cold start to the tournament as his half-century kept the East Bank bowlers constantly searching for wickets following the departure of the openers.

The Captain’s 50 arrived with five fours under his belt with Raymond Perez (27) providing ideal support from the other end with his turning over of the strike.

The left-hander motored on and with Perez standing his ground, the two brought up Georgetown’s first 100 partnership of the tournament.
When Perez fell, Johnson continued to find the boundary and when Barnwell came to the crease, it was then that the bowlers felt the brunt.

The right-hander hammered anything loose while Johnson oozed with class to reach his milestone at nearly a run-a-ball.
Sherfane Rutherford then denied the former Windies T20 player the chance to get to 50 when he was caught behind; inevitably bringing an end to the free flow of runs as the innings came to an end.