After being postponed since early last December due to the inclement weather and unavailability of grounds in the city, the Noble House Seafood-sponsored Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) second division, two-day club competition restarted last weekend.
Twenty-four-year-old Elton Baker starred with bat and ball to aid his club Guyana National Industrial Co-operation (GNIC) to a commanding 255 run over Third-Class at GNIC ground. Winning the toss and batting first, GNIC posted 241 all out with Desmond Butts 65, Elton Baker 40 and Rawle Merill 35 being the principal scorers.
In reply Third Class were restricted to 136 all out with Baker and Merill the chief wicket-takers with the ball with figures of 3/24 and 3/12 respectively.
With a first innings lead of 105, GNIC declared their second innings on 242/8. This innings was built on the back of Baker’s 116 (10×4, 6×6).
Bowling leg-spin in the second innings he captured 5-13 to help bowl out Third Class for 92.
Baker was one of the standby players during the Guyana Twenty20 squad in January and was one of the key players in the President’s XI which won the national Twenty20 tournament last December.
Up the road at Gandhi Youth Organization (GYO) Ground, Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and GYO played out to a draw.
Taking first strike, GDF posted 237/9 declared. Pravindralall Persaud 3-20 and Anand Goolserran 3-55 were had the best figures for GYO.
GDF gained first innings points as they restricted GYO to 195 all out. Derrick Koulen with 68 was the top-scorer for GYO.
Batting a second time GDF collapsed to 108 all out with Garfield Deroch having the best analysis for the GYO bowlers with 3 for 25. Needing 151 to win, GYO were precariously placed on 60/5 when the game time was called on this encounter.
Finally Malteenoes triumphed by eight wickets over Vikings at the YMCA Ground.
Taking first strike Vikings were bundled out for 133, with K Jugdeo (44) and D. Beharry (32) being the standout contributors with the bat.
Malteenoes spin bowling duo of off-spinner Shaquille Williams (4 for 36) and Guyana Youth leg-spinner Steven Sankar (3/37) were responsible for the Viking’s timid first innings batting effort.
Vikings, however, fought back with the ball as the Thomas Land side was shot out for just 90 in their first innings. Delon Moffet and Williams were the only players to reach double figures with scoring 21 and 20 respectively.
Although they gained a first innings advantage, they lost that initiative after they folded miserably to 75 all out. D Berry (39) was again amongst the runs while the Sankar/Williams spin combo with figures of 4/39 and 4/10, again were the architects responsible for drawing up the Viking’s batting demise.
Needing 119 to win, Malteenoes got there for the loss of just two wickets, thanks to a captain’s innings of 63 not out (10×4) from captain Delvon McEwan.
