By Calvin Roberts
Following their dismal showing in the just-concluded three-day competition, the Demerara selectors have made some changes to the squad that will contest the limited overs format of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/GTM under-19 Inter-county championship which commence today with Essequibo taking on Demerara at the Police Sports Club ground, Eve Leary from 0930 hrs. Opening batsman Troy Nurse has made way for Calvin Sookraj who plays for East Coast while left arm orthodox bowler Dennis Legay along with fast bowler Jamal Taylor and Nankishore Singh are included in the 16-man squad.
The Essequibians who seem bent on repeating their historic victory over the defending champions in this encounter, also made changes to their squad immediately after the completion of their final preliminary round match against eventual winners Berbice in the three-day competition, with Edwin Burnett and Orin De Freitas being the new faces replacing Uvendra Balgobin and Kenneth Smith respectively.
In their opening game against Essequibo, the Demerara bowlers routed their opponents for 159 and 61 but their batsmen failed to apply themselves and were routed for 82 and 129 to lose by 10 runs. Even though they rebounded to score a massive 316 against Berbice in their final preliminary round match which earned them first innings points, the batsmen still continued to give away their wickets with some careless and airy shots.
In that game, debutant Balvindra Persaud struck 115 but was given five chances by the Berbicians whose performance in the field was just as miserable as those which were evident from the other two counties in the competition.
If they are to enjoy success in this format of the game, Persaud, Trevon Griffith, Rajendra Nikbarran, Ranole Bourne and company will have to buckle down and bat positively or suffer a similar fate to the one they experienced against their opponents in the first round of the three-day competition.
Essequibo will be inspired by their victory in the three- day competition which landed them the runner-up position and captain Royan Fredericks and company will be looking to continue such a showing. According to coach Alfred Maycock in an invited comment after their defeat to Berbice, “We will be looking to return to Essequibo with the limited overs championship trophy.”
Their batting will be centred on Fredericks, Ravindra Parsram, the hard hitting Dillon Heyliger and the sometimes moody Royston Alkins, who is also expected to play a positive role with the ball against the same opponents after snaring a match haul of 8-50 when they first met.
But in order to post a challenging total against their opponents, the Cinderella county team must first try to negotiate their fast bowling pair in Leon Scott and left arm swing bowler Andre Stoll who both created havoc for the Berbice batsmen when the two teams clashed in the just-concluded match.
Stoll, can play a major part in this match-up not only with the ball, but also with the bat after making a quick fire 39 in his team’s first innings against Berbice.
Persaud who made 75 in the second innings to go along with his century in the first, landed himself the best batsman prize and will be looking to get amongst the runs to impress the selectors who will be using this competition as a yardstick to select the national team to defend the Regional TCLUnder-19 championship later this year.
Teams:
Demerara from: Denver Greaves (captain), Trevon Griffith, Rajendra Nikbarran, Ryan Rajmangal, Calvin Sookraj, Jeetendra Sookdeo, Ranole Bourne, Elon Fernandes, Rajendra Ramkellawan, Leon Scott, Jamal Taylor, Andre Stoll, Balvindra Persaud, Nankishore Singh, Dennis Legay and Totaram Bishun.
Essequibo from: Royan Fredericks (Captain), Ravindra Parsram, Royston Alkins, Dellon Heyliger, Parmeshwar Neel, Terrence Tulsiram, Brandon Cabose, Mark Austin, Herrel Greene, Oyano Sampson, Tristan Massena, Floyd Henry, Edwin Burnett and Orin De Freitas.
Play in this match will commence at 09:30hrs.
