An entertaining unbeaten 48 (43 balls, 6×4) from young Vishal Singh piloted Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) to a six-wicket victory over Rose Hall Town Windies Sports Bar in their Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Neal and Massy nation-wide semi-final encounter at the GCC ground Bourda yesterday.
Set 170 from 40 overs to win after restricting Rose Hall to 169-8 from their 40 overs, GCC reached 170-4 from 38.1 overs as their middle order struggled to get the slower bowlers away.
Former West Indies Under-19 captain Leon Johnson, scored 43 from 58 balls with two fours and one six, as Assad Fudadin kept a tight rein on the batsmen conceding only 30 runs from his eight overs for the solitary wicket of opener Ricardo Jadunauth who made 35.
Jadunauth faced 71 balls for his runs and struck four fours, enjoying his day in the field as he had earlier grabbed 3-20 in Rose Hall’s innings.
Johnson joined forces with Singh after their team were 82-3 and took the score to 149 before Johnson who took 14 balls before he got his first run, struck Royston Crandon over mid wicket for a six, then pulled a short ball from Troy Matheison straight to captain Esaun Crandon at a short midwicket with only 21 more required for victory at the commencement of the 36th over.
Veteran all rounder Neil “Beast” Mc Garrell then joined Singh and the pair comfortably saw GCC to thei required target off 38.1 overs to set up a clash with Albion on Sunday in the final at the National Stadium, Providence.
Bowling for Rose Hall, Matheison (1-17), E. Crandon (1-27) and Fudadin 1-30 were the wicket takers.
Earlier, Rose Hall Windies Sports Bar were asked to take first strike but were undermined by some tight bowling from GCC who restricted them to 19-2 in 6-1 overs.
They had a mini recovery through the efforts of Fudadin (14) and Royston Crandon. Crandon scored 45 with four fours and one six off 49 balls and helped post 28 runs for the third wicket with Fudadin before the latter, who faced 18 balls and struck one four set off for a single to mid off and was run out by Jadunauth.
Crandon and K. Mahadeo who scored19, (50 balls 1×4) then added 53 for the fourth wicket but after Crandon was dismissed no other batsman posted any substantial score for Rose Hall.
Jadunauth (3-20) and former West Indies fast bowler Reon King (2-28) were the main wicket takers while there was a wicket each for Jason Benn (1-19) and Mc Garrell (1-23).
In the other semi-final Albion Sports Club defeated South Essequibo by four wickets in the game played at the Albion Community Centre ground.
Batting first, South Essequibo led by Norwayne Fredericks 56 (5×4) and Geewan Singh (20) were bowled out for 127 from 35.3 overs after being 115-4 at one stage.
Skipper Narsingh Deonarine (4-34), Verasammy Permaul (2-15) and Devendra Bishu (2-25) were the principal wicket-takers.
Albion, in reply, found themselves in a spot of bother at 91-6 with national opener Sewnarine Chattergoon and Guyana Stanford Twenty/20 player Imran Khan both back in the pavilion for 20. But a level-headed Bishu in collaboration with national Under-19 player Jonathan Foo, who each ended on 17 not out guided their team home to 128-6 from 28 overs and guaranteed them a spot in the final where they get the chance to retain their title.
Bowling for South Essequibo, Fredericks took 3-28 and Trevor Benn 2-17 from eight overs each.
