HAVING surrendered first-innings points to local whipping boys Essequibo, defending champions GT&T Berbice rebounded to claim an outright victory, doing so by five wickets yesterday, on the final day of their Guyana Cricket Board Inter-County four-day fixture at the Wales Community Centre ground.

In Queenstown at the Demerara Cricket Club ground, Demerara, who like Berbice started this round on 12 points, were led on the first innings by the President’s XI, in their rain-ruined encounter, even though Amir Khan snapped up five victims.
But it was the team from the Ancient County who stood out during this round, thanks to the bowling of Eon Hooper and Gudakesh Motie, who helped dismiss Essequibo for 91 in their second innings, which along with their 50-run first-innings lead, handed GT&T Berbice 142 to win the contest.
Having made 140 in their first innings and bowling out GT&T Berbice for 90 on the penultimate day, thanks to Mark Tyrell’s career-best 6 for 14, Essequibo had the entire day yesterday to garner enough batting practice before their final round game against the President’s XI at the same venue.
They failed to do so, succumbing to the spin of Hooper and Motie who took 4 wickets each for 23 and 33 runs respectively, to fall for 91 as only Kemo Paul who struck Motie back over his head for his lone six in his 16, Ricardo Adams 15 (2×4), Royan Fredericks 12 (2×4) and Vijai Surujpaul 11 (1×4) offered resistance.
At lunch, GT&T Berbice were 33 for 1, with Richard Ramdeen (3) being the lone casualty as he was caught by Anthony Adams at mid off, off the bowling of Kemo Paul, with Sewnarine Chattergoon who hit the second delivery of his team’s innings from Tyrell over midwicket for six, unbeaten on 18 and Gajanand Singh 10.
After lunch, GT&T Berbice lost Singh (17) to be 51 for 2, before Chattergoon and his skipper Assad Fudadin pushed the score to 76 for 2, at which point both Fudadin (10) and Anthony D’Andrade (0) were dismissed, leaving GT&T Berbice on 76 for 4.
They took the tea break at 112 for 5, losing the wicket of Chattergoon on the stroke of tea for 53 (3×4, 1×6), but not before the left-handed batsman had posted his 50 from 104 deliveries with three fours and his lone six.
It was the final strike for Essequibo, as Delbert Hicks who made an unbeaten 40 which also included a six that was struck back over the head of Anthony Adams and Jason Sinclair (9*), steered GT&T Berbice to 142 for 5, against the bowling of Tyrell who took 2 for 39 to end with match figures of 8 for 53.
At DCC, President’s XI resumed the final day on 62 for 2 in reply to Demerara’s 365 but failed to negotiate the bowling of Khan who took 5 for 44, along with Zaheer Mohammed’s 2 for 26. They sent the President’s XI packing for 202, even though Jeetendra Sookdeo made a resilient and unbeaten 70.
At lunch, they were 133 for 5 off 63 overs, losing the wickets off Steven Latcha (2), Elton Baker who laboured for a 34-ball duck and Anthony Bramble (12), which left them on 98 for 5, before Sookdeo and his skipper Eugene La Fleur pushed them to their lunch-time score, with the former on 39 and the latter 20.
After lunch, Sookdeo got to his half-century from 195 deliveries with six fours and a six that was struck over long off, off the bowling of Shaquille Williams, before he lost La Fleur, who hit a delivery back to Khan when well set on 42, having faced 76 deliveries and hitting seven fours.
Sookdeo was forced to retire hurt on 60 at 165 for 6, after he was struck on the hand by Khan, following which the President’s XI lost Collis Butts (1) who picked out Kellon Carmichael at long off as he looked to hit Khan over that area, and Brandon Bess (1) who was lbw to Carmichael with the fourth delivery of the second new ball, to be 189 for 8 at tea.
After tea, the President’s XI who saw Sookdeo resume his innings and hit Paul Wintz for six, which was separated by two fours, lost both Seon Daniels (8) and Gilford Moore (2) to Mohammed, to fall short by a mammoth 163 runs.
When many thought Demerara would have enforced the follow-on, seeing that they were in a position to do so, they opted to bat and reached 54 without loss, when play was called off before the start of the final hour, with skipper Rajendra Chandrika on 29 (3×4) and Robin Bacchus 13 (1×4).
Bacchus started his team’s second innings in an ominous manner, by square-driving Daniels through point for four off the second delivery, while Chandrika joined the boundary scoring act with two fours in separate overs off Baker, who was handed the new ball ahead of both Moore and Bess.
Heading into the final round which bowls off tomorrow, Demerara will take on GT&T Berbice at Everest and Essequibo will face President’s XI at Wales. The defending champions GT&T Berbice have 24 points, followed by Demerara on 18, Essequibo 5 and President’s XI 3.