West Berbice snatched first innings points from New Amsterdam/Canje as action in the Berbice Cricket Board of Control (BCBC) sponsored 2008 Leslie Amsterdam Memorial Under-17 Inter-Zone cricket competition got underway on Thursday.
In another scheduled encounter, rain prevented play in the match between Upper and Central Corentyne respectively.
Asked to take first strike after NA/Canje won the toss at the Bath ground, West Berbice, who lost their first wicket in the second over (Brentnol Woolford) and their second wicket (Travis Ross) in the eighth, fought back to score 119.
Shane Sinclair had grabbed both of the early wickets to fall, but West Berbice owed their recovery to the batting of Andrew Dennis (31) and to a lesser extent Raffel Estridao (4).
The pair posted 38 runs for the third wicket before they were both removed with the score on 69.
Raul Wade (12) and Jermaine Nicholson (15) then added a further 24 runs for the sixth wicket, but with the loss of Wade and Zaheed Yacoob in quick succession, they slipped to 109-7 before being dismissed for their eventual total.
National under-15 off spinner Joemal La Fleur led the way with the ball, taking 3-13.
He was supported by Kevin Ramdeen (2-17) and Sinclair (2-20).
NA/Canje, in reply was dismissed for a disappointing 93 as spinner Rajiv Kishun bagged 3-12. NA/Canje found itself in early trouble losing their first three wickets for 29 runs as Woolford ripped the heart out of the batting grabbing two of the three wickets.
However, Stephen De Freitas (17) and Devendra Jainabi (4) added 28 runs for the fourth wicket and looked set to steer their team to a comfortable position and eventual first innings points before they both departed to leave their team perched on 58-5.
Kishun was then introduced into the attack and he tore the lower order apart with three quick wickets and, with support from Andrew Dennis, NA/Canje was bowled out for their meagre total.
With a first innings lead of 26 runs, West Berbice had a repeat of their first innings top order batting failure when they were shakily placed on 2-2 against the all-spin attack of La Fleur (2-23) and Berbice Under-15 player Jamally Odle (3-10).
Estriado with (21) along with Wade (16) and Dennis (14) proved to be a tower of resistance for their team, even though they collapsed to reach 106 all out. Trinson Carmichael (2-23) and Ramdeen (2-32) lent good support with the ball to Odle and La Fleur for NA/Canje.
With bad light affecting play, NA/Canje was not able to begin their run chase, and the game ended in a tame draw. West Berbice collected six points for their first innings victory whilst NA/Canje got three.
The group `B’ match between Upper Corentyne and Central Corentyne which was slated for the Scottsburg ground was completely rained out, leaving both teams with four points each.
