IN mostly sunny conditions on the East Coast Demerara, a fair size crowd saw Demerara Pitbulls beat Essequibo Jaguars by two wickets and three balls to spare in the final of the Guyana T10 Blast at the Enmore Community Centre ground yesterday.
Pittbulls made 101-8 in reply to the 96-6 made by the Jaguars.
Jaguars quickly slipped 13-4 in 2.2 overs as Leon Swamy bowled West Indies U-19 batter Mavindra Dindyal (0) off the third ball of the match.
Swamy then trapped Jomal La Fleur (5) lbw before Shemroy Barrington pulled Chris Barnwell (6) for four before he was run out. Skipper Kemol Savory (1) was also run out in a ‘helter- skelter’ fashion.
However, Seon Glasgow and Kevon Jawahir joined forces and Jawahir flicked Keon Sinclair for four before Glasgow clobbered him for six.
Pacer Floy Joseph, the brother of Test Pacer Shamar Joesph, bowled a relatively ‘tight’ sixth over in this ‘slam bang’ style which cost six runs.
With calculated slugging, the pair carried the score to 50 from 5.4 overs on the large ground which had a slowish outfield due to recent inclement weather.
Jawahir was unbeaten on 29 from 16 balls with a four and a six while Dick was not-out on 29 from 17 balls with a similar number of boundaries.
Swamy had 2-5 and Keon Sinclair 2-21 for the Pitbulls who started with all guns blazing.
Junior Sinclair was in a pugnacious mode while Sachin Singh played the supporting role.
In a murderous display of ferocious hitting, Junior Sinclair hammered Dick to all parts of Enmore as his opening over leaked 24.
Junior Sinclair departed for 36 from 15 balls with three sixes and three fours as pacer Nial Smith stuck twice in the fourth over when he had Barnwell lbw for a duck as two wickets tumbled at 45.
Singh was joined by Damion Vantull and the latter went after the bowling; hitting three massive sixes before he fell to Nedd at 73-3 in 6.3 overs.
Singh, despite hitting a six, struggled to get the ball off the Square and was soon removed by Nedd for 13 at 74-4 which soon became 75-6 when Dick removed Jerimiah Scott (1) and Malcolm Hubbard for a duck.
Jonathan Rampersaud (2) fell to Dindyal at 82-7 before Keon Sinclair dumped for Dindyal for six before Swamy (2) was run out 92-8. Joseph lofted Savory for six for the win.
Dick, Nedd and Smith had two wickets each. Earlier, in the first semi-final, Essequibo Jaguars beat Essequibo Anacondas by three wickets in a game which was reduced to six over per side.
Anacondas batted first and made 41-4 in their allotted six over with teenager Thaddeus Lovell scoring 19 from eight balls with a four and a six.
Jaguars reached 42-7 off the last ball of the game despite the good work with the ball from Skipper and left-arm Antony Adams who had 2-14 from two overs and Qumar Torrington (2- 8 from 1 over).
In the second semi-final, Berbice Caimans lost to Demerara Pitbulls by three wickets with a ball to spare. The Caimans reached 80-7 off 10 overs with Anthony Bramble top scoring with 20 from 17 balls with a four and a six.
He got support from Alex Algoo with 16 from seven balls with a four and a six and 17-year-old National Table Tennis player Jonathan Van Lange who made 15 from nine balls with a four and a six. Fast bowler Floy Joseph took 2-16.
The Jaguars in reply made 81-7 in 9.5 overs. Barnwell made 20 from 17 balls with a four and a six, Vantull scored 19 from 12 balls with a four and a six and Scott clobbered an unbeaten 11-ball 19 with two fours to his team into the finals.
Van Lange returned with the ball to capture 3-9 while skipper Kevlon Anderson took 2-18.
At the presentation ceremony, Pittbulls captured the inaugural Championship Trophy and $1.5M while the runners up took home a trophy and $500, 000.
The losing semi-finals collected $100,000 each.
Berbice Pirahnas’ Quinton Sampson scored the most (234) runs; Berbice Pirahnas’ Veerasammy Permaul (13) had the most wickets, and the most Valuable Player Awards went to Barnwell. (Sean Devers)
