By Frederick Halley

REGAL Legends’ dominance in Over-50 softball continued at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground on Sunday when they emerged winners of the Legends Over-50 category in the seventh edition of the Georgetown Softball Cricket League (GSCL) Inc-organised Prime Minister’s T20 softball tournament before their roaring supporters.
Fresh off their triumph in New York in July and Orlando in March, the well-oiled Guyanese outfit walloped arch-rivals, New York Softball League (NYSCL) Legends, by an emphatic eight-wicket.

Unlike last year, when they squeezed home in a nail-biting finish against the same opponents at the Guyana National Stadium, there were no such hiccups this time around after a scintillating 108-run partnership between opener Uniss Yusuf (68) and Ramesh Deonarine (66 not out) effectively sealed the deal for the homesters after they had restricted the New Yorkers to 179 for five in their allotted 20 overs.

Yusuf, whose knock was punctuated with five fours and two sixes and the left-handed Deonarine joined forces at 48 in the fourth over following the dismissal of Mahendra Arjune (three) and by the time the latter was bowled by Debo Sankar with the score on 155 in the 15th over, the game was effectively secured.

Deonarine, whose innings was decorated with four fours and an equal number of sixes, found a useful ally in Surujdeo Ramdeen (seven not out) as they saw their team home in 17.4 overs. Jagdesh Singh ended with one for 21 and Sankar one for 35.
Earlier, NYSCL Legends won the toss and opted to bat in the blazing sun and lightning-fast outfield but found themselves in a spot of bother at 50 for three in the seventh over with skipper Mahendra Hardyal accounting for openers Ravi Sahadeo (12) and Tony Fernandes (20) and number three batsman Ramchannan Singh (20).

Quayam Farooq and Jagdesh Persaud, however, featured in a face-saving fourth-wicket partnership of 93 and looked well set to set the defending champions a total in excess of 200.
The partnership ended when Wayne Jones knocked back the stumps of Farooq for and even 50, an innings which contained seven fours off 33 balls, with the score on 143 for four in the 16th over. Persaud departed one run later, caught by wicket-keeper Eion Abel off Deonarine for an entertaining 35 which included one four and four sixes.

Rickey Edwards (21 not out) and Nandalall (12 not out) added a further unbeaten 35 for the fourth wicket as the visitors closed their innings on 179 for five, a total which always looked inadequate under the conditions, especially taking the Regal Legends batting lineup into consideration and so it proved.

Hardyal ended with three for 33 in his four overs while there was one wicket each for Deonarine and Jones for 15 and 40 runs respectively.
Deonarine was adjudged man-of-the-match in the final, collecting a trophy in the process while Yusuf carted off the Player of the tournament award – a sofa set, compliments of Regal Stationery and Computer Centre; Trophy Stall donated all the trophies for all the four categories – women, Legends Over-50, Masters Over-40 and Open All Stars.
The winners took home a whopping one million dollars (Guyana) and the runners-up $50,000 in the 10-team category. Both teams were also recipients of trophies while the winning players also got medals.