Essequibo rebounded from a 125-run defeat to Demerara in the first round in Essequibo with an exciting six-wicket win over Berbice in the second round of the Hand-in-Hand Big Man Cricket over-40, thirty overs Inter County match at Enmore yesterday.
Mohammed Khan reached the ropes 10 times and cleared it on three occasions in his attractive 52-ball 71 and added 101 with Vishal Lall who followed up his 68 at Reliance which a pugnacious 48 from 24 balls with two fours and six sixes.

An unbeaten 62 decorated with eight fours and a six from 46 balls by former Essequibo senior Inter-County all-rounder, Ramesh Narine, and a cameo 29 with three fours and six from Ravi Beharry powered Essequibo to 261-4 in 28 overs with Guyana’s Stanford T20 player Imran Khan taking 3-38 for Berbice who had made 258-8 from their allotted 30 overs with Khan clobbering 12 fours and fours in commanding 120.

Khan shared in an 89-run opening stand with Marlon Brutus (35) and 126 with Ravindra Bridgelall, who stroked 54 from 45 balls with three fours and three sixes, to take the Man-of-the-Match trophy in a losing cause.

Balram Samaroo stroked the ball sweetly in an unbeaten 30 from 16 balls with a four and a couple of sixes for Berbice who had beaten the President,s X1 at Blairmount last Sunday.
Narine, bowing off-spin, had 2-42 to help Essequibo to their first win as they joined Demerara and Berbice (2 matches) with a win each in the inaugural competition.

On a good track in sunny conditions, Berbice won the toss at the East Coast Demerara venue which hosted four First-Class and 17 regional 50-over games between 1993-2004, and elected to bat.
Khan and Brutus (who took the first wicket in Stanford T20 cricket playing for St Marten) played an array of delightful shots but after posting the 100, Brutus was bowled by Lall in the 10th over.

Khan, almost hitting boundaries at will and Bridgelall, on his birthday, carried the score to 209 before Khan was bowled by a well disguised slower ball from pacer Punraj Singh.
Narine removed Bridgelall at 216-3 before bowling Lakram Latchman (4) off the last ball of the innings and at the halfway stage Berbice seemed heading for consecutive wins.
But Lall and Khan had other ideas and launched a brutal attack on the hapless bowlers before Sarfraz Omar broke the century stand.

When Skipper Shabeer Baksh, who was earlier ‘roughed up’ by Lall, dismissed Khan at 137-2 and Beharry fell at 181-3, Berbice still kept their victory hopes alive.
However, the left-handed Narine shared in crucial partnerships with Navisha Pooran (11) and Latchman Singh (19) to see the men from Guyana’s largest County to victory with 12 balls to spare.
Today at Enterprise, pre-tournament favorites Demerara, led by first century-maker, former Test opener, Ryan Ramdass, face-off with the President’s X1 from 11:00 AM.