THANKS to some incisive fast bowling from former national Under-19 pacer Seon Daniels, the President’s XI were able to restrict Demerara at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground, while at the Wales Community Centre ground, Essequibo were shakily placed against GT&T Berbice.

Both matches are second-round contests, which have been hampered by rain so far, and are being played in the Guyana Cricket Board’s (GCB) senior four-day Inter-county tournament, from which the team to represent Guyana in the West Indies Cricket Board’s four-day tournament would be selected.
At DCC, Demerara who resumed on 102 for 1 with their skipper Rajendra Chandrika on 52 and Shemroy Barrington 13, reached 157 for 5 at the close of play, thanks to Daniels’ bowling in windy conditions, which saw him snare 3 for 34 for President’s XI.
The Demerara team should have seen the demise of Barrington off the second ball of the day’s play which got under way at 15:00hrs, but breathed a sigh of relief when Tagenarine Chanderpaul grassed a straightforward chance at point as the batsman cut at a delivery from Stephen Latcha.
To add insult to injury, Barrington  cut Brandon Bess for four through point, followed by a sweetly-timed drive through extra cover for another boundary, before he was caught off the leading edge by Jeetendra Sookdeo at short midwicket off Bess for 32 (83 balls, 4×4), at 131 for 2.
He added 76 for the second wicket with Chandrika, who stood at the other end in disbelief, when Chandrapaul Hemraj was lbw to Latcha without scoring, one run after Barrington’s demise, while Chandrika himself was lbw to Daniels for a patient 73 (144balls, 12×4), leaving his team on 150-4.
That became 152 for 5, following the demise of Joseph Perry, who failed to trouble the scorers after feathering one through to Anthony Bramble off a fiery-looking Daniels, before Vishal Singh (9) and Zaheer Mohammed, who is yet to score, saw their team to the close of play score.
Daniels received valuable support from Bess and Latcha who have so far taken a wicket each for 24 and 50 runs respectively. When play resumes today at 09:00hrs for the third day’s action, weather permitting, they should be looking to add to that tally, while restricting the Demerara team.
At Wales, Essequibo resumed on 56 for 3 with overnight batsmen Herrel Greene and Ricardo Adams on 14 and 6 respectively.
However, they succumbed to the spin combination of Gudakesh Motie and Eon Hooper, to end the second day, which started late due to overnight and early morning rain, on 123 for 9.
Greene added two to his overnight score before he was bowled by Hooper who also dismissed Ricardo Adams in similar fashion, with the temperamental left-handed batsman failing to add to this overnight score.
Motie then chipped in by removing Vijai Surujpaul (14), Anthony Adams 21 (1×6) and Kemo Paul 13 (1×4), while Hooper ran-out Mark Tyrell for 3, before Mark Gonsalves 10 (1×4) and Herry Greene 3, saw Essequibo to their final score at the close of play.
Motie 3 for 27, Hooper 2 for 23, Clinton Pestano 2 for 29 and Keon Joseph 1 for 22 shared the wickets for GT&T Berbice, who would be hoping for an early start to today’s action, so they can restrict the Cinderella County lineup as quickly as possible.