By Delvon Mc Ewan
East Coast on Thursday took the lead in the Demerara Cricket Board/ Diamond Fire and General Insurance Incorporated U19 competition when they defeated East Bank by three wickets at the Enmore Community Development Centre Ground, East Coast Demerara.
Spearheaded by half centuries from national youth player Brian Sattaur (61) and Viswanauth Ramlakhan (52) East Coast reached 157-7 in 35.5 overs replying to East Bank’s 156-9.
Sattaur was in aggressive mode from the start of his innings hitting two boundaries off the sixth and seventh deliveries he faced.
When he lost his opening partner Ramnarine Chatura leg before wicket to spinner Stephon Browne with the score on 16, Sattaur kept the momentum by hitting two more boundaries in the over which followed.
He and Ramlakhan added 82 runs for the second wicket before Sattaur, who brought up his fifty with a glance to the leg side for two was out three balls later attempting to clear the long on boundary.
Following Sattaur’s dismissal, leg-spinner Ershad Alli collected three wickets for nine runs in a five-over spell to give his team hope. Shortly after Alli’s spell ended, Ramlakhan brought up his 50 with a magnificent back foot drive that went racing to the left of mid-off and into the boundary. With three runs needed and five wickets in hand East Coast lost two more wickets via the run out route and was fortunate not to lose a third when Sahadeo Ramkelawan was put down at square leg.
East Coast reached its target with 5.1 overs remaining and three wickets in hand to take the lead with two victories in as many matches heading into the final match. Bowling for East Bank, Alli had match figures of 4-37
Earlier after a delayed start due to seepage unto the pitch that allowed a reduction in overs, East Bank, sent in East Coast after losing the toss reached 156-9 at the end of their 41 overs with Deonarine Seegobin (37) and Ryan Shun (36) the principal contributors. Vivian Albert, the East Coast off-spin bowler claimed five -34 off nine overs.
After a slow opening start of 76 runs in 23 overs between Seegobin and Shun, East Bank slipped to 90-4 due to poor shot selections and running between the wickets. Albert was responsible for the dismissal of both openers having Shun caught at short mid-wicket while Seegobin followed in similar fashion. Stephon Browne (16) was Albert’s third victim caught at deep mid-wicket and he followed up with the wickets of Ricky Debydial who was caught attempting to clear the mid-wicket boundary and Vikash Rampersaud via a return catch.
Across at the Wales Community Development Centre Ground, Georgetown lost to West Demerara by 60 runs with Malcolm Hubbard turning in a fine all round performance.
Batting first West Demerara reached 231-8 in 48 overs, with Hubbard (56), Ronaldo Renee (47) and Daniel Basdeo (44) being the principal scorers.
In reply Georgetown was dismissed for 171 in 42.1 overs with Sherfane Rutherford (44), Kemol Savoury (27) and Tariq Dhanamlall (23) being the main scorers. Bowling for West Demerara, Hubbard took four wickets while Kevin Paul and Richie Looknauth had two wickets each.
