National left arm orthodox bowler Veerasammy Permaul bowled Berbice to a six wicket victory over defending champions Demerara in the first round of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/Pepsi/Carib Inter-county 20/20 competition at the Blairmont Community Centre (BCC) ground yesterday.
Permaul continued his fine form in the shorter form of the game by claiming 3-13 from four overs of controlled bowling as Demerara, on the back of an unbeaten 78 from Stanford Superstar middle order batsman Travis Dowlin, compiled 131-5 from their 20 overs.
Berbice, in reply, reached 137-4 from 19.2 overs.
Demerara, sent in to bat, lost Christopher Barnwell (04) early caught by Narsingh Deonarine at mid off as he attempted to drive a delivery from Berbice skipper Esau Crandon in the third over.
Thereafter, Dowlin and Rajendra Chandrika shared a 49-run, second-wicket partnership before Chandrika was stumped by wicket-keeper Delbert Hicks off Permaul.
Dowlin, who it was reported had given up the Demerara captaincy prior to the start of play yesterday, reached his half century from 36 balls.
But Demerara lost debutant Gajanand Singh (15) and Krishna Deosarran (00) while Dion Ferrier (06) was caught by Fudadin also off Permaul.
Dowlin, though, remained calm and was unbeaten on 78 at the end.
Crandon (1-23) and Devendra Bishoo (1-31) were the other wicket takers for Berbice who raced to 30 from their first six overs, before they lost the wicket of Royston Crandon (15) who was caught at short midwicket by Chandrika off Steven Jacobs.
Deonarine (35) joined Ramdeen and they took the score to 78-2 with Deonarine getting an outside edge past wicketkeeper Maxwell Fraser on its way to third man for four while Ramdeen cut Barnwell for four through the point area.
Berbice raced to 50-1 from 8.4 overs with Deonarine hitting skipper Zaheer Mohammed through mid on for four while Ramdeen struck Ferrier over long on for six but held out to Barnwell on the deep midwicket boundary two balls later.
At 78-2 in the 13th over, Ranga Lachigadoo (13) entered with Berbice needing a further 54 runs to get from seven overs.
Berbice were to lose the wickets of Deonarine and Lachigadoo before victory was assured, Assad Fudadin hitting the second delivery of the final over all the way over long on and out of the ground off Ferrier for six.
Fuddain was unbeaten on 15 and Jonathan Foo, 13 at the end.
Action in the tournament will continue today at the same venue, with a double header commencing from 0900hrs. In the first game, Essequibo will oppose Berbice whilst from 1300hrs Demerara will go against Essequibo, who will only need a victory in one of their games to make it to the final for the first time.
Earlier Dowlin surprised all and sundry when he told the manager of the Demerara team that he was giving up the captaincy for personal reasons.
The executive members of the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) appointed Mohammed the captain and Steven Jacobs the vice captain.
