A trio of truly one-sided contests throughout the city saw Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC), Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) and Malteenoes Cricket Clubs recording thoroughly convincing victories in their respective quarter-finals of the Georgetown Cricket Association’s (GCA) Queensway Cup knockout limited overs competition yesterday.
At the DCC Ground, The clash between DCC and Police Sports Club (PSC) saw the Queenstown side demolishing their Eve-Leary counterparts by 253 runs.
Batting first the star-studded DCC outfit, which possessed an array of former national under-19 players, senior Guyana players and West Indies representatives, amassed an impressive 349 all out in 47.4 overs. Recently selected West Indies Twenty20 international wicket-keeper Derwin Christian top scored with a shot-filled 82 (47 balls, 2×4, 9×6), while almost all the other batsmen got decent starts.
he other main contributors were opener Trevon Griffith (58), Christopher Barnwell (46), Jahron Byron (38) and Denver Greaves (35).
Jason Heyliger (4-59) and Vishaul Jaigobin (3-73) were the main wicket-takers but quite obviously, with such a massive total scored, they claimed those wickets at a high cost.
PSC in reply, never looked capable of mounting a serious effort on that massive target, and folded miserably for 94 in 24.4 overs. Ray Rajmangal (35) had the only score of note, while off-spinner Dennis Squires (3-33), left-arm wrist spinner, Totaram Bishun (3-21) and medium pacer Paul Wintz (2-14) combined well as a bowling unit to blow away the PSC side.
At GCC Ground: GCC made light work of Transport Sports Club (TSC) en-route to claiming a walk in the park nine-wicket victory. The Thomas Lands side won the toss in lovely city sunshine on a surface that looked good for batting. But they quickly squandered whatever advantage came with getting first use of the pitch, to be bowled out 87 in 29.1 overs. Only Charwyn McPherson (40) and Stephan Sampson (26) who combined scored about 75% of their team total showed the necessary application needed on the day.
Recent Guyana Under-19 left-arm spinner Raj Nanan (4-25) and national player Leon Johnson (3-18) bowling part time leg-spin, combined to spin out the visitors.
In pursuit, GCC reached their target losing a solitary wicket, as they finished on 88 for 1. Johnson completed a good all-round game to top-score with 57 not out and, along with Ricardo Jadanauth (20 not out) took their team home without much fuss.
At Everest Ground: Malteenoes brushed aside another opponent at the Camp Road venue en-route to clinching a semi-final place in the competition. Following their 241-run clobbering of second-division side Third-Class last week, the Steven Jacobs led outfit coasted to an eight wicket victory over Ace Warriors. Having first use of the wicket, Ace Warriors became the third team for the day to fail to reach 100, when they were dismissed for 91 in 25.5 overs. Clayton Alleyne (23) was the batsman with the highest score, but the team suffered the ignominy of having extras be the innings top score with 34.
The wickets were shared evenly by the Malteenoes bowlers medium pacer Seon Daniels (2-17) and off-spinners Deon Ferrier (2-17) and skipper Jacobs (2-5).
Malteenoes achieved their target of 92/2 in 18 overs. Guyana Under-19 batsman Kwame Crosse was unbeaten at the end with 31 not out while Nkosie Barker (24), Carlos La Rose (24) and former 2006 Guyana Under-19 representative Danny Narayan (10 not out) chipped in.
The semi-finals of this competitions bowls off on September 10 with Guyana National Industrial Corporation (GNIC) locking horns with GCC before the big clash between the star-studded Malteenoes and DCC teams. The final will be played the following day.
