Rose Hall Town’s Poonai Pharmacy defeats Cotton Tree
–to face Albion in Final

ROSE Hall Town’s Poonai Pharmacy defeated Cotton Tree Cricket Club by five wickets to advance to the finals of the historic Ricky and Sons business enterprise Under-11 cricket tournament.
Playing at the Chesney cricket ground, the Poonai Pharmacy team recovered from a shaky start with 34 for 5 in the fifth over to win with over 8 overs remaining.

Cotton Tree won the toss and elected to take first strike.
They lost opener Ricardo Laurie for one, when pacer Justin Lachigadu took a return catch with the score on 7 in the second over.

Apart from Trandit Dhani, who top-scored with 17 with two boundaries, no other batsman reached double figures.
Austin Bridgelal (00), Fayad Gaffur (8), Afridi Khan 5, Sandeep Singh (3), and Afraz Gaffur all fell cheaply.
Fadeen Khaliem (2) and Richie Laurie (1) were unbeaten when the 20 overs expired.

Justin Lachigadu took 2 for 9 from four impressive overs, while Jayden Ganpat claimed 3 for 16 with his left-arm spin. Dharvesh Narine, 1 for 21, and Khemraj Bharrat, 1 for 17, were the other wicket takers.
Needing to score 91 from 20 overs to reach the final, Rose Hall Town’s Poonai Pharmacy was ultra-aggressive, and found themselves in trouble at 34 of 5 in the 5th over.

Justin Lachigadu (6), Jermaine Bob (3), Vinesh Singh (5), and Dharvesh Narine (4) all fell cheaply, while Khemraj Bharrat seemed unlucky to be given caught-behind for 3.
From 34 to 5, a solid 6-wicket partnership between Akeem Fraser and Justin Hicks took their team home to victory. Fraser ended on 20* with a single boundary, while the attractive looking Hicks was unbeaten on 25.

Bowling for Cotton Tree, Fayad Gaffur took 2 for 21, and Richie Laurie 2 for 19 from 2 overs.
The finals would be set on a date and venue to be decided by the competition committee of the Berbice Cricket Board.
The tournament is the first of its kind to be organised at that level by the county’s board, and forms a part of their developmental programme.

The BCB plans to organise a U-9 tournament in 2024, to go along with the U-11, U-13, U-15, U-17, and U-19, U-21 and U-23 tourneys.