West Berbice and Central/ Upper Corentyne outplayed favourites Lower Corentyne and New Amsterdam/Canje respectively to reach the finals of the Diamond Fire & General Insurance Company Berbice Inter-Zone Under-19 Tournament.
West Berbice edged past Lower Corentyne at Blairmont ground by one wicket, while Central/Upper Corentyne crushed New Amsterdam/Canje at the Port Mourant Ground.
At Blairmont, Lower Corentyne batting first in the two-day match scored 131 with Eon Hooper 34, Jonathan Foo and S. Hardial 32 as the main scorers. Bowling for West Berbice Keon Fraser took 4-45, Sherwain Mc Pherson 3-16 and Raun Johnson 2-10.
West Berbice in reply were bowled out for 80 with Brendon Woolford 18 and Phillip Edwards 18 offering meagre resistance to the bowling of Terrence Madramootoo (3-6) and Sahadeo Somai 3-14.
Batting a second time Lower Corentyne with a lead of 54 were dismissed for 105 with Harrinarine Chattergoon 27, Eon Hooper 21 and Jonathan Foo 15 being the only batsmen to reach double figures. Fraser 2- 5, Ajay Khan 2-11 and Mc Pherson 2-12 did the damage with the ball.
Needing to score 160 for victory, West Berbice found themselves in dire trouble at 104 for 9 before D. Ramkissoon and Raun Johnson added an unbeaten 58 for the final wicket to take them to victory. Ramkissoon was not out on 36 and Johnson on 23 while B. Woolford had earlier scored 22, as Foo took 4-48 and Somai 3-47 for the losers.
Over at Port Mourant an outstanding all round performance from Berbice Under-19 allrounder Alex Amsterdam led Central/Upper Corentyne to a commanding victory over pre-match favourite New Amsterdam/Canje.
Batting first Corentyne scored 182 all out with Pradeep Singh hitting 30, Anthony Bramble 26 and Aric Angel 28. Trinson Carmichael took 4-44 and Seon Hetmyer 3-17 for New Amsterdam/Canje who in their turn at the crease, were shot out for 106 despite a solid opening partnership of 60 between Sean Baksh (15) and Jomal La Fleur 38.
After the opening pair, only Videsh Singh 17 offered any resistance as off spinner Amsterdam had the remarkable bowling figure of 14 – 5 – 24 – 9.
Batting a second time with a lead of 76, Corentyne scored 209 all out with Amsterdam hitting a magnificent 114 decorated with 14 fours, before he was run out. He received support from Clinton Pestano 30. Hetmyer returned to claim 4-39 bowling for New Amsterdam/ Canje.
Needing to score 286 for an unlikely victory, New Amsterdam/Canje were dismissed for a meagre 108 and lost by 177 runs. Only four batsmen reached double figures – Hetmyer and La Fleur both struck 23, Rocky Hutson 19 and Sean Baksh 16.
Amsterdam completed a dream match by taking 4- 21 to end with match fgures of 13-45 and along with Chandrekar Arjune 2 for 15 guided his team to the upset victory and a place in the finals.
New Amsterdam/Canje will clash with Lower Corentyne to decide on third place for the tournament at Port Mourant on Saturday and Sunday while the two winners will play in the finals. The tournament is being used by the Berbice Cricket Board to select the Under-19 Team for the upcoming GTM Inter-County Tournament.
