-Johnson spearheads wins for GCC
Everest Cricket Club’s (ECC) Abilash Deokie smashed the first century of the Georgetown Cricket Assoc-iation Digicel Twenty20 tournament at the Malteenoes Sports Club ground yesterday.
Deokie sent 10 deliveries sailing over the ropes and hit four fours in his undefeated 101 as his team posted a challenging 236-3 from their allotted 20 overs. His partner Troy Gonsalves also joined the run-fest with an unbeaten 61 that had four fours and as many sixes.
The imposing target became too much for MSC which only mustered 169 all out in 18.3 overs, with Damian Vantull’s 62 (4×4, 6×6) proving inadequate. Deokie returned with the ball to take 4-25 from 3.3 overs while he got valuable support from Rakesh Goberdan and Gonsalves who had returns of 3-31 (4) and 2-39 (3) respectively.
Further, the gods were with ECC since they cruised to an easy win over the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) in the morning at the Camp Ayanganna ground. GDF took first strike and rolled to 104 with out-of-favour national speedster Trevon Garraway scoring 32 and Sherwin McKinnon chipping in with 15.
Goberdan and Gonsalves were again among the wickets with two apiece. When their team responded right-hander Chris Pattadin top scored with 65 not out (6×4, 5×6) and former West Indies opener Ryan Ramdass supported with 28 as ECC reached 105.
Stylish left-handed batsman and right arm off-spinner Leon Johnson had a good day with bat and ball as Georgetown Cricket Club won both their matches yesterday. GCC clinically disposed of Demerara Cricket Club at the Queenstown ground and they comfortably beat Police Sports Club at the Eve Leary ground.
Johnson struck 60, which included four fours and three maximums, in his team’s 194-9 from 20 overs against DCC; Ricardo Jadanauth (32), Ravi Sarwan (26) and Vishal Singh (22 not out) also contributed with the bat. However, the match became one-sided when DCC were steamrolled for a meagre 39; Omesh Danram was the only batsman to show fight with 21.
Johnson spearheaded the bowling with figures of 3-14 and Jadanauth and Sarwan helped with 3-16 and 2-6 respectively.
Against Police, GCC bowled out their opponents for 155 in 19.5 overs with B. Persaud stroking 64 and Raul Browne and Andre Stoll pouring in with 30 and 21. Johnson, again, helped to orchestrate the win with 4-17 while Winston Nelson joined the fray 3-31 and Sarwan had two scalps for 27 runs.
When the upper Regent Street team replied they reached 156-5 in 19.2 overs with ‘Cheesy’ Singh topping the batting with 54; Johnson, who seems to coming back into good touch, stroked an undefeated 52 while pinch hitter Wasim Haslim added 21.
Jason Heyliger and national medium pacer Trevor Benn were the pick of the PSC bowlers with figures of 2-13 and 2-26 respectively. (Marlon Munroe)