Defending champions Demerara easily retained their Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/Castrol U-15 Inter-County title when they defeated arch rivals Berbice by seven wickets on the Duckworth/Lewis system in the final round match yesterday.

Competing at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence, the venue where Berbice triumphed by 37 runs the previous day, the Berbicians needed another victory to guarantee them the title they lost to the defending champions last year.

Therefore, it came as a bit of a surprise when they won the toss and, opting to take first strike, were reduced to 36-4 in the eight over before the heavens opened up and forced the players off the field for an hour.

When play restarted, the game was reduced to 39 overs-a-side but Demerara needed only 36.5 overs to dismiss their rivals for a meagre score of 99 after having them 72-9 after 24.5 overs.

Berbice were indebted to a last wicket stand of 27 from 12 overs by Mark Basdeo (12) and Gudakesh Motie, who made nine.

Veerapen Permaul (15) and Rajindra Dasrat (14) were the principal scorers while Kareem Naughton bagged 5-12 and Shaquille Williams 2-15.

Demerara, in reply, reached 95-3 from 36.2 overs.

Brian Sattaur scored an unbeaten 51 while Chanderpaul Hemraj scored 11 not out. Christopher Surat made 10.

Motie picked up 2-21 while skipper Shawn Pereira took the other wicket to fall for 14 runs.

At the presentation ceremony which followed, Naughton was declared the Man-of-the-Match, while Sattaur, Motie and Dinesh Mangal were declared the best batsman, best bowler and best wicketkeeper respectively.