Lower Corentyne drew first blood from Upper Corentyne, thanks to Guyana under-15 left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie who had a first innings haul of four wickets.
In the group B match which was reduced to 45 overs per inning instead of the 60 agreed to earlier, due to the late arrival of the Upper Corentyne team, Lower Corentyne won the toss and opted to bat first and posted 183-4.
Opening the batting for Lower Corentyne former Guyana under-15 players Harrinarine Chattergoon and Dominique Rickie put on 33 for the first wicket before Chattergoon went caught off the bowling of Clavern Beresford for 17. Remesh Aido joined Rickie at the crease and took the score to 60 before Rickie was out caught off spinner Delvin Maynard for 10.
Naidu remained steadfast and posted another 54 in 16 overs with Nelroy Hicks before Maynard in quick succession got rid of both of them, Naidu for 41 and Hicks for 26. In the remaining 14 overs of the 45 Meheshwar Naidu joined forces with Joshua Ramsammy and remained unbeaten to the end with scores of 22NO and 35NO respectively adding 66. Maynard was the pick of the bowlers for the Upper Corentyne squad with 3-58.
When Upper Corentyne had their turn at the crease they encountered immediate problems losing Mark Lionel for one with only 8 on the board getting clean bowled by Hugh George. The team was in more trouble after losing Trevor Thomas run out for 7, and Dwayne Edward trapped by Motie to slip to 33-3.
This year’s national under-15 batsman Clinton Pestano and Delon Hinds tried their best to hold up the Upper Corentyne middle order but with Hinds going out caught at 57-4 their fate was sealed as after being placed at 104-6 Motie quickly came into action taking 3-14 as the Upper Corentyne folded for 111.
Pestano with 28 and Hinds with 25 were the two top scorers for Upper Corentyne. In the bowling department Motie ended with 4-30 and Verapen Permaul 2-10.
And Lower Corentyne comfortable ahead by 53 runs took to the crease a second time round and finished on 53-4 when stumps were drawn. Permaul returned with the bat to score 22 while Pestano after his batting in the first innings returned with the ball to bag all four wickets.
The present points standing are: Group A West Berbice 6 points from one match and New Amsterdam/Canje 3 points from one match, while in Group B Upper Corentyne has 7 points from 2 matches and Lower Corentyne 6 points and Central Corentyne 4 points from one match each.
