THE Beharry Group National U-19 schools T20 cricket tournament, organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, continued yesterday with the semi-finals and final of West Berbice Zone at the Woodley Park ground in Cotton Tree Village, West Bank Berbice.
The second Semi-final was a Day/ Night, while the final was played under lights last night.
Led by Man-of-the-Match Ricardo Danesar, West Side High defeated home team Woodley Park Secondary by 46 runs in a low-scoring encounter to advance to last night’s final.
Scheduled to commence at 9:30 AM, morning rain in Region 5 delayed the start, resulting in the first being reduced to a 15-over affair.
West Side High were invited to bat by Woodley Park Secondary an outfield a bit on the slow side due to the morning showers as the sun came out in all its glory.
Led by a 42-run second wicket partnership between Danesar, who scored four sixes and four in 34, and Devendra Samaroo who played the anchor role with nine, West Side High reached 115-7 when 15 overs expired.
Extras contributed 28, which included 24 wides.
Ricardo Laruie (4-15), Danesar (3-3), Romel Sukhnandan (2-12) and Samaroo (2-11) conspired to rout the home team for a dismal 46, with only Mohit Nemdhari (13) getting in double figures.
Nemdhari and Rafeek Ali (9) put up token resistance with a 17-run stand before Samaroo bowled Nemdhari at 24-2 while Laruie had Ali stumped a run later.
Shivnarine Kandai was run out for a duck at 27-4 and when Laruie bowled Zaheed Khodabux (1) the last six wickets crumbled for nine runs.
Earlier, Danesar and Samaroo joined forces after Noah Hiralal (3) was dismissed by Khodabux at 16-1 in the fourth over and the pair looked set for big scores until Khodabux had Danesar caught and bowled at 58-2.
Ali then bowled Samaroo, had Nathan Karamchard (13) caught and bowled, and then bowled Nathan Persaud (9) to break a fighting 21-run fourth wicket stand to leave the score on 92-5.
Two wickets fell cheaply before Shaquan Ceres (7*) and Laruie (7*) saw their team to a sub-par total, which was enough in the end.
Ali had 3-12 and Khodabux took 2-9 in a losing effort.
