Two reflex catches in the space of three balls from Georgetown Cricket Club’s (GCC) Alex Romalho underlined the allround performance of the club over the Guyana Defence Force in the final of the Noble House Seafoods second division tournament at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground yesterday.
Romalho, fielding at short midwicket, first caught Paul Costello for nine and then Terrence Madramootoo for nought off the penultimate over of the day off Raphael Singh, who conceded no run off his bowling.
It was no high scoring contest but the GCC players defended their total of 184 from 56.2 with disciplined bowling and fielding. By the end of the first day, the GDF team was stuttering at 98-7 after 31 overs. GDF’s top order batsmen, which include youth batsman Mark Rhobe, Marcus Watkins and Randy Lindore, all got starts but lost their wickets at crucial periods of the run chase.
Rhobe was unbeaten on 27, which was decorated with five fours, while Watkins, opening the batting scored 22 and Lindore stroked 20. Gavin Singh took 2-14 while Trevon France snared 2-17. Earlier, when GCC batted Almondo Doman was left undefeated on 43 (4×4, 2×6) but it was the partnership of 51 between Gavin Singh and Clevon Hyman that changed the complexion of the innings after their team had lost some early wickets.
Singh ended on 47 (8×4, 1×6) while Hyman made 27 (5×4) after sharing a 51 fourth wicket stand. Lindore, bowling his right arm offspin, was in the action with 4-24 (5.2). He was supported by right arm fast bowler Miguel Cort who picked up 2-25 (6) while Costello (1-13), Ameer Khan (1-25) and Clinton Collins (1-41) chipped in with a wicket apiece.
The match ends today and begins at 10:00 hours.
Caption: Mark Robe pulls during his unbeaten innings yesterday at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground. (Orlando Charles photo)
