NBS semi-finals on today….
By Neil Barry Jr.,
The New Building Society Limited 40-overs-a-sdie second division competition will showcase what is expected to be two captivating encounters today between the top four sides of the competition.
At Bourda, the young Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) team will aim to overwhelm a strong Police Sports Club line up while at Queenstown, the home team Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) will aim to continue their prolific year with a win over Everest Cricket Club.
Police Sports Club reached the semi finals by finishing second in Group B amassing 88 points while GCC topped Group A with 91 points.
GCC has been led by all round performances from off spinner Almando Doman while wicket keeper Martin Pestano-Bell has also been useful behind the stumps and with the bat.
Seamers Bernard Bailey and Cleon Critchlow have been consistent with the new ball while Doman and Devon Lord have been the spin bowling pair shouldering the workload for GCC.
Police Sports Club boasts a few explosive players who can easily take the game away from the much younger players on the GCC side. Troy Benn and Ryan Rajmangal – who has the highest score of the tournament to date – will be the main adversaries with the bat for Police who have generally looked to bully teams into submission with their aggressive batting.
Everest Cricket Club on the other hand, will be aiming to usurp the consistent DCC side which features more often than not in the final and semi final of a second division fixture.
Dennis Squires and Dexter George have produced match winning performances with both bat and ball for DCC while wicket keeper Khemraj Rupee has been among the runs.
Their batting line up also boasts Andrew Gibson and bowling all rounder Orlando Sturge while Kemol Savory has been explosive up the order with the bat.
Everest’s Sherfane Rutherford has been consistent for them with the bat but will need contributions throughout the order if they are to post a competitive total.
Javid Rasheed and Raphael Singh will be looking for another good showing with the ball for Everest while Christopher Surat, Mohan Ramdeen and wicket keeper batsman Dinesh Mangal will be hoping to count themselves among the runs in the must-win encounter.
Both semi finals commence at 11 a.m. today and, with good weather on two grounds with fast outfields, teams will be looking to score excessively. The final of the competition will be played the following weekend.
