By Sean Devers
DCC beat Berbice Champions Albion by six wickets yesterday at Bourda to advance to today’s final of the GCB Republic Bank National U-23 knock-out 50 overs club tournament against Essequibo winners North Essequibo at Bourda from 9:30 am.

DCC dismissed Albion for 128 in 44.4 overs before galloping to 130-4 in 31.5 in a tournament marred by substandard scores.
On a flat track which offered some assistance to the spinners and a parched outfield, DCC won the toss and opted to field.
The game commenced 32 minutes late because of the late arrival of the Berbice team due to malfunctioning brakes on the team bus when they stopped for breakfast at LBI resulting in them waiting for another bus which came from the City.

Under an almost cloudless Sky in sweltering heat, Jeetendra Outar’s off stump was sent cartwheeling by pacer Kareem Whitney for 1 at 5-1
Tameshwar Mangal (8) and the left-handed national U-17 batter Ari-Afrizal Kadier, who favored the cut, took the score to 20.
However, Mangal meekly dapped a fast, short ball from off-spinner Nkosi Beaton to slip for a soft dismissal.
The technically correct Kadier and the right-handed Damion Cecil joined forces.

They both increased the tempo after a careful start and shared in a 41-run stand against a spin attack which bowled a bit too fast and flat.
Kadier who made 20 from 78 balls with two fours, edged a flipper from back of the hand left-arm spinner Daniel Mootoo to the keeper, as Albion slipped to 61-3.
Mootoo struck again when Afraz Dudhoo (4) was caught at cover at 74-4 and after Damion Cecil was sent packing by Beaton after facing 58 balls in his 38 with three boundaries, only Naeem Khan, who struck a couple of massive sixes in his 16 from just six balls before he was LBW to Mootoo at 117-7.
Khan and Devin Lallbeharry (6) added 23 for the seventh wicket before they both departed in the space of a run as none of the other batters from the ancient county passed 12.
Beaton capitalized on the inability of the Albion batters to use their feet and pick the gaps, to take 4-20 while Mootoo, the tournament’s leading wicket-taker, bagged 3-20 to take his wicket tally to 16.

When DCC’s runs chase commenced, the tournament’s most senior batter Sachin Singh continued his ordinary form in this tournament when the left-hander executed a big shot off the second ball he faced and was bowled by Leon Cecil for duck as the home team were off to an inauspicious start.
Brandon Jaikarran hit a wonderfully constructed unbeaten innings; making 52 from 89 balls with two fours and three sixes with the left-handed wicket keeper, showing good defense while dispatching the bad balls for boundaries.

Jaden Campbell hit three fours in 45-ball 20 before was bowled by Tameshwar Mangru at 34-2 before all-rounder Inderjeet Nanan and Jaikarran carried the 87 with a solid 53-run stand before Nanan who reached the ropes thrice in 23 was caught and bowled by Cecil.

Jaikarran played some lovely cover drives and soon reached his 50 but with score on 98 National U-19 left-hander Shamar Yearwood’s poor continued when he was bowled by spinner Kumar Deopersaud for 10 to leave DCC on 98-4.

However, Guyana U-17 Skipper Jonathan Van Lange (10 not out) and Jaikarran saw the Queenstown side to victory