E’bo beat B’ce by five wickets in opening round
By Sean Devers
There was sweltering heat and blue skies yesterday at the GCC ground Bourda as Essequibo beat Berbice by five wickets in the opening round on the inaugural Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) U-13 Inter-County 40 overs cricket tournament
Watched by a fair gathering of mostly Essequibo supporters, Berbice opted to bat on a slow pitch and fairly fast outfield despite Wednesday’s showers.
The Essequibo batters showed the benefits of positive batting when they galloped to 112-5 in 27.1 overs replying to the 111-6 made by Berbice from their 40 overs.
Wicket-keeper Justin Dowlin, the nephew of former West Indies batter Travis Dowling, blazed to 27 from 34 balls with two sixes and a couple of fours while Makayan Holmes supported with 23 from 45 balls decorated with three boundaries which included a six.
Mark Daniels hit a six and a four in a cameo unbeaten 14 from 13 balls while Bumesh Lall (12) was the other batter to reach double figures for Essequibo whose batting tactics were in total contrast to Berbice.
Berbice’ game plan was to bat out the overs.
Richard Ramdehol took had 3-7 for the Boys in Red who will need to up their run rate by finding the gaps and rotating the strike more.
Earlier, the Berbicians were kept on a tight leash due to impressive bowling and sedate batting.
When their 40 overs had expired, Berbice lost only six and scored 111 with extras top scoring with 42; 38 of them being wides.
Of the batters, Nathaniel Ramsammy, who hit two boundaries from 33 ball in his 17 and was the only one that played with any degree of positivity.
He was supported by Tameshwar Deonandan who made an unbeaten 15 from 29 deliveries and the left-handed Arif Marimutoo, who demonstrated pleasing temperament in 70-ball 13 which lasted 95 minutes and included a solitary boundary.
Five bowlers took a wicket each.
Farhan Ballie (1) was LBW to Darious Pearson at 18-1 in sixth over before Marimutoo who played the ‘sheet-anchor’ role was joined Arif Bacchus.
Bacchus (3) was stupendously caught and bowled by ‘leggie’ Jatnel Nurse diving full length to his left with the score 37-2
Marimutoo, missed an ill-advised sweep at a full toss from Bhumeshwar Lall and was trapped lbw while the aggressive Ramsammy who favoured the on-side, fell to Etan Silas.
The number of wides might give a false impression of lack of control by the bowlers since one wide counted for two and was not re-bowled.
The second round is set for today at Bourda from 10hrs today.
