By Neil Barry Jr.,
The short-lived nature of the two Georgetown Cricket Association’s Queensway semi finals was a reflection of the strength of the two sides the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) and the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) who bullied their opposition into submission on their way to setting up a rematch of last year’s final.
DCC now has a chance to avenge their loss to the impressive GCC side in last year’s final.
In Queenstown, it was a tale of two halves as DCC raced to victory on the same pitch where the Everest Cricket Club’s batsmen struggled for fluency before they were dismissed for 147.
DCC pounced on anything in their corridor as they romped to a six-wicket win.
DCC won the toss and their bowlers quickly ran through the Everest top order reducing them to 7 for 50 in 16 testing overs.
Apart from Zaheer Mohamed, the Everest batsmen struggled against a DCC pace assault led By Christopher Barnwell, who varied his pace well.
Everest lost their first wicket when Andre Stoll had Adrian Singh caught by Andrew Gibson. Paul Wintz then took the big wicket of Rajendra Chandrika, caught behind by the ever dependable Derwin Christian, who ended with three dismissals behind the wicket. After that Barnwell contrived to take the next four wickets in the space of 46 runs, including that of Chanderpaul Hemraj and Shaeed Mohamed for 23 after the batsman had struck him for a towering six over long off.
Stoll returned to take the key wicket of Zaheer Mohamed for 34 (two sixes and a four) while Guyana Under-19 opening batsman Mohan Ramdeen came in at number 10 and helped take Everest past 100 along with Joseph Perry. Ramdeen was dismissed with the score on 125 when an edge behind rebounded off the pad of Christian and was taken by Wintz at slip off Omesh Dhanram. Everest’s innings ended on the last ball of the 43rd over when number 11 Christopher Surat was bowled by Dhanram.
Perry finished not out on 33 from 48 balls after opening up with two fours and a six while Barnwell finished with figures of 4 for 26, Stoll 2 for 18, and Dhanram 2 for 11.
In reply, DCC’s Andrew Lyght Jr., began aggressively taking 27 runs off the second over bowled by Hemraj but perished in the next over, caught at long on off Shaeed Mohamed for 27 with two fours and three sixes.
Amir Khan then had Gibson playing on for 1 with his first delivery. Barnwell needed only two balls to get his eye in, before striking Khan cleanly for a straight six to bring up the GCC 50 in the seventh over, before repeating the shot the very next delivery. Barnwell was also severe on the medium pace of Gonsalves, hitting him for two sixes and a four as DCC raced to 85 after just 10 overs.
The DCC 100 came in the 12th over as they continued to score at a frenetic rate. Barnwell brought up his half century off just 25 deliveries with another six, this time over cover off Amir Khan.
With 10 runs to win Gajanand Singh flicked Amir Khan to the deep mid wicket boundary only to be caught for 17. Barnwell struck three more sixes before tamely pushing a catch to cover off Troy Gonsalves’ leg spin for 81 in just 54 deliveries with a total of five fours and nine sixes. Dhanram duly formalized DCC’s place in the final with a four over cover off Khan as DCC won in the 22nd over.
At Bourda, GCC coasted to a seven-wicket victory in 18.4 overs against a lacklustre GNIC side.
GNIC made just 85 all out in 23.3 overs after they were inserted to bat by GCC. Shawn DeSouza made the top score of 19 with three fours and the next highest score came from Jermaine Grovesnor who made 13 not out.
Joshua Wade, who finished with 3 for 13, took his wickets up front while Raj Nanan (2 for 13) and Robin Bacchus (4 for 22) wrapped up the GNIC tail.
In reply, Robin Bacchus was dropped off the second ball of the chase but GNIC fought to stay in the game by taking three early wickets. First Jeetendra Sookeo was run out for two then Collis Butts had Bacchus lbw and then followed that up by bowling Ramnaresh Sarwan for a duck.
With GCC 13 -3 at this stage Leon Johnson and Vishaul `Cheesy’ Singh batted with caution to take GCC to 50 in just over 15 overs, before sprinting down the homestretch with Johnson especially timing the ball sweetly, hitting Collis Butts high over long on for six. A misfield off the next delivery brought the required runs down to five, and Johnson finished the match with a powerfully pulled six to spoil the figures of Butts who bowled 10 overs on the trot for 35 runs although his first nine overs went for 19. Johnson finished not out on 40 with three fours and two sixes while Singh worked his way to 25 not out with three fours.
