GCB/GTM Under-19 Inter-county
… Crosse, Stoll and Habib hit half-centuries
NATIONAL Under-19 fast bowler Andre Stoll struck a pugnacious half-century while two patient innings from Kwame Crosse and Arif Habib, coupled with Amir Khan’s second five-wicket haul, guided Demerara to an innings and 24-run victory over Essequibo in their first round Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/GTM Under-19 Inter-county match at the Uitvlugt Community Centre ground yesterday. Resuming on their overnight score of 44-3 with Crosse on 17 and Habib 61 in reply to Essequibo’s first innings score of 126, both Crosse and Habib carried Demerara to the comfortable position of 142 without further loss at lunch, before they declared their innings close at 253-5.
With a lead of 127 and just a session and five overs to bowl at their opponents, Demerara backed themselves in the field to wrap up the Cinderella County for 103 from 33.2 overs, thanks to Khan’s second five-wicket haul of the match, 5-32 to end with match figures of 11-64 from 30.2 overs.
Scores in the match, Essequibo 126 and 103; Demerara 253-5 declared.
Crosse, who had earlier struck national Under-19 fast bowler Ronsford Beaton (2-39) for two boundaries, followed by two more off Tulsiram Premnauth (0-55), posted his half-century and the first in this year’s tournament from 121 minutes batting, hitting four fours from the 112 deliveries he faced.
He was given a life earlier by wicketkeeper Keron McLennon off Beaton when on 29 at 60-3, but soldiered on to hit Premnauth audaciously through extra cover for his fifth boundary, before he was caught by Vijay Surujpaul at first slip off Anthony Adams’ first ball of the third over after lunch.
Prior to his departure, Crosse who led Guyana’s Under-15 team in 2008 had added 108 with Habib for the third wicket from 52.1 overs and 167 minutes which carried Demerara to 144-4, at which stage the hard-hitting Stoll entered the fray to up the scoring rate for his team.
He took a few overs to settle in, after which he punched Adams off the back foot and through extra cover for four, followed by a six back over the head of Mohabir who had a no-ball problem, bowling around the wicket, on his way to a 109 fifth-wicket partnership with Habib.
Two more fours by Stoll off the bowling of Premnauth pushed his score to 41 and Demerara to 212-4, before Habib, who was content on offering support to his hard-hitting partner, reached his 50 from 177 deliveries hitting five fours and batting for 202 minutes.
Stoll duly got to his half-century and the first at this level with a single to long on off Adams, facing 53 deliveries and hitting four fours and one six while batting for 57 minutes and he celebrated with a six struck back over the head of Surajpaul and a four off successive deliveries.
Essequibo must have been glad to see the back of Stoll, who was caught by Mohabir at long off when he attempted to hit Greene over the boundary having faced 64 balls and hitting six fours and two sixes while batting for 60 minutes.
Demerara who had a lead of 127 at Stoll’s dismissal, declared their innings close leaving Habib unbeaten on 61 made off 264 deliveries with five fours from 207 minutes batting against the bowling of Adams and Beaton who took two wickets each for 35 and 39 runs respectively.
Essequibo second innings’ got off to a bad start even though skipper Herell Greene worked national Under-19 fast bowler Seon Daniel through backward square leg for four, followed by two more boundaries off Stoll and Daniels respectively.
His partner Surajpaul also got a boundary off Daniels before he was trapped on the crease by the same bowler at 11, but they rallied to be 28-1 at tea, with Greene on 14 and Mohabir 5 which included a four back past Stoll.
Mohabir did not hang around to cause Demerara any trouble as a lightning fast stumping by Demerara’s skipper and wicketkeeper Dexter Solomon off Christopher Surat, accounted for him in the second over after tea.
As was the scenario in the first innings and what has become customary with any team at any age group from the Cinderella County, a steady procession of batsmen followed the demise of Mohabir, including the prized wicket of Greene as they slipped from 34-2 to 58-6.
A direct hit by Daniels who was stationed at mid off, accounted for McLennon (7), while Neil Ramalho (6) and Adams (9) who had struck Surat over midwicket for a six, was sent back by Surat and Raj Nanan respectively leaving Essequibo on 58-6.
Resilient action from the two Kevins in the team, namely Kevin Boodie (29) and Kevin Fredericks (12), saw a valuable 32 runs being added to their team’s total from their seventh-wicket partnership with Boodie hitting both Khan and Nanan for a pair of boundaries.
But it was all Khan who held a skier off his own bowling to get rid of Boodie who faced 44 balls for his top score of 29 which took him 43 minutes to accumulate and was decorated with six fours and that was followed by a magnificent catch by Stoll at solitary slip to remove Fredericks.
Tyrell struck one hard and low back to Khan and when Premnauth picked out Shameer Fazal at mid wicket leaving Beaton unbeaten on three, the Demerara team were on the path of celebrating their first round victory at 16:39 h.
As he did in the first innings, Surat once again supported Khan in the bowling department with his 2-30 while there was a wicket each for Daniels and Nanan.

SCOREBOARD
ESSEQUIBO 1st innings 126 H. Greene 28, M. Tyrell 21, A. Khan 6-32
DEMERARA 1st innings o/n 44-3
K. Crosse c Surajpaul b Adams    72
A. Habib not out    61
A. Stoll c Mohabir b Greene    71
Extras: (b-9, lb-4, nb-16, w-1)    30
Total: (for 5 wickets declared off 83.4 overs) 253
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-5, 3-36, 4-144, 5-253.
Bowling: Beaton 10-1-39-2 (nb-1), Fredericks 4-1-12-0, Adams 21-7-35-2, Premnauth 13-3-55-0 (nb-4), Mohabir 15-1-52 0- (nb-1), Greene 6.4-2-18-1 (nb-1), Surajpaul 14-5-29-0.
ESSEQUIBO 2nd innings
H. Greene
V. Surajpaul lbw Daniels    4
R. Mohabir stp. Solomon b Surat    9
K. Mc Lennon run-out    7
N. Ramalho c Stoll b Surat    6
A. Adams c Daniels b Nanan    9
K. Boodie c & b Khan    29
K. Fredericks c Stoll b Khan    12
M. Tyrell c & b Khan    0
R. Beaton not out    3
T. Premnauth c Fazal b Khan    0
Extras: (lb-1, b-1)    2
Total: (all out off 33.2 overs)    103
Fall of wicket: 1-11, 2-34, 3-36, 4-43, 5-57, 6-58, 7-90, 8-90, 9-99.
Bowling: Daniels 4-1-16-1, Stoll 2-0-14-0, Khan 14.2-4-32-5, Surat 9-1-30-2, Nanan 4-2-9-1.