Berbice reclaimed the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Pepsi/Carib Beer Inter-county 20/20 Competition when they defeated Demerara by four wickets at the Providence National Stadium last evening.
Berbice won the toss and asking the defending champions to take first strike, reduced them to 150-7 from their 20 overs, then thanks man of the match Jonathon Foo (31) reached 151-6 in 19.5 overs to regain the title they lost to Demerara last year.
After being giving the opportunity to bat first on what looked like a flat surface, Demerara got off to a wobbly start losing Christopher Barnwell (08), caught by Narsingh Deonarine in the fifth over off a Esaun Crandon.
Not long after Travis Dowlin (08) was bowled by a Royston Crandon delivery which got through his gates, leaving Rajendra Chandrika (49) at the other end.
Approaching his half century, Chandrika lost another partner, this time Shemroy Barrington who was run out for 10 by Veerasammy Permaul with the score on 79.
Chandrika was then trapped lbw by Devendra Bishoo after hitting four fours in his top score of 49, to leave Demerara on 90-4 in the 15th over. Steven Jacobs (07) and Troy Gonsalves (06) were the next two wickets lost for Demerara.
In the final five overs of play, Singh (27) and Dion Ferrier who made an unbeaten 20, accelerated the run rate to just over ten runs per over, due to some terrific running between the wickets that forced a few fielding errors, along with some clean hitting that brought along a few boundaries.
Berbice began their reply on a positive note, thanks to a 47 run opening partnership between Richard Ramdeen (18) and Devon Clements (21), before they were both dismissed on 47 and 61 respectively.
Royston Crandon (08) was next to go, compliments of a spectacular catch by Singh off his own bowling, followed by Assad Fudadin who went for eight.
Deonarine who was going great guns was stopped on 22 when he holed out to Troy Gonsalves at long on off a Zaheer Mohammed delivery, but from that point on, skipper Esaun Crandon and Jonathon Foo pushed their team closer to the target, before Crandon was bowled in the 20th over for 12 by Ferrier with six runs needed for victory.
With two balls left to make the final run, Foo guided the penultimate delivery between cover and extra cover, to complete the victory.
Singh (3-40) and Ferrier (2-22) tried to bowl their team to victory, but their efforts were in vain as Foo maintained his composure to seal the win and the championship for Berbice, despite Mohammed conceding a mere 15 runs from his four overs.
