– George, Barrington & Lyght shine for the Guyanese

GUYANA’s ‘Demerara’ emerged champions of the inaugural Caribbean Airlines T10 Village Cricket competition, with two victories at National Cricket Centre (NCC) in Couva, Trinidad yesterday.

Played in strong wind in overcast conditions, a fair size crowd watched Demerara, who beat Essequibo by 58 runs and Berbice by six wickets in the Guyana leg of the tournament to qualify for yesterday’s tournament in the Carnival Country to win the tournament before the final game began.

Demerara, led by their 36-year-old skipper Shemroy Barrington who has played seven First Class matches for Guyana, beat country champions South East of Trinidad by four wickets before defeating St. Elizabeth Junction of Jamaica by 21.

In the first game, South East were restricted to 90-9 off of their 10 overs with Brian Pegus (20), Jevon Webb (17) and Nicholas Khan (16) offering token resistance.
Man-of-the-Match Dexter George captured 3-11 and got support from Jamal Gomez who had 2-17.

Andrew Lyght Junior, the son of former West Indies ‘B’ team opener Andrew Lyght and Barrington went after the bowlers and reached 34 in the third over before the Skipper (13) who smashed consecutive boundaries on either side of wicket, was taken at long-off off the bowling of Mc Craig Smith.

Lyght executed a stunning extra cover drive for four which was arguably the shot of the day.

Richard Latif and Lyght carried the score quickly up to 69 before Latif (22) was lbw to Nicoes Rajkumar.
But with Demerara cruising at 72-2 in the eighth over, Aadian Racha almost turned the game on its head.

He bowled Suresh Budhu (5), shattered Sheldon Alexander’s (0) wicket with the next ball and all of sudden, was on a hat-trick.
In a bizarre run of events, Keon Morris square drove for four only to realise the high wind had blown off the bails off the non-strikers’ wicket causing the umpire to call and single ‘Dead Ball’.
To add drama to an eventful over, Racha beat the outside and appealed for caught but Morris was out of his crease, the Keeper took off the bails and the umpire at Square-leg raised the dreaded figure and Morris was stumped.

After effecting one of the strangest hat-tricks Racha was not done yet and removed Jermaine Maxwell (1) in the same over as Demerara slipped from 69-1 to 73-5.
Lyght was then run out for 28 and 74-6; the game was in the balance.

However, Racha who had 4-11, had completed his two overs and Corwin Austin, with eight to get in the final over, saw Demerara home with two balls to spare.
In the second match, Barrington (73) and Lyght (54) plundered St Elizebth Junction bowlers for 132 runs in a brutal opening partnership before Lyght was run out off the last ball of the innings.

When the Jamaicans began the chase, they were restricted to 117-7 despite 28 from Sheldon Allen, 24 from Craig Walters and 23 from Troy Powell. (Sean Devers)