By Neil Barry
Another thrilling chapter in the historical rivalry between Malteenoes Sports Club (MSC) and the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) was written last weekend when MSC defeated DCC on their home ground despite losing first innings points in the Georgetown Cricket Association’s (GCA) Heroes Cup first division competition.
Set a target of 168 on the final afternoon, the game ended in fading light with former DCC player Antonell Atwell and Danny Narayan
seeing MSC home by six wickets.
On Saturday morning Malteenoes won the toss and invited DCC to take first strike. This decision paid initial dividends as former Under-19 pacer Quason Nedd picked up wickets in his first two overs while Seon Daniels removed Christopher Barnwell and Andrew Gibson for 26 and 22 respectively.
However, Coen Ismond (22) and Omesh Dhanram (22) batted around Derwin Christian (68) to take DCC to 219 all out.
Daniels finished with 4 for 46 for MSC while Nedd had 2 for 16.
In reply MSC fell 13 runs short of first innings points as they were bowled out for 206 with Omesh Dhanram grabbing 5 for 38 from 11 overs, and Barnwell taking 3 for 56 from 18 overs.
Several Malteenoes batsmen failed to build on starts with Delvon McEwan (39) and Danny Narayan (48), the principal scorers.
An improved performance from Malteenoes led to them dismissing DCC for 154 in their second innings. Seamer Kareem Naughton partnered with Nedd to bag five DCC wickets between them while leg spinners Steven Sankar and Danny Narayan took two wickets each.
Dhanram top scored with 40.
Malteenoes’s rapid chase, which ended in just 28 overs, was spearheaded by Imran Hassan (47) on his return to first division cricket and useful contributions from Kwame Crosse (22), Orin Forde (21), and Narayan (36 not out). Dhanram only bowled five overs in the second innings but picked up 2 for 20 while Barnwell and Kevin George had a wicket apiece.
