The margin of victory was a mere four runs as Kaieteur Thunders won the inaugural Cricket For Unity T20 match against Roraima Strikers Saturday night at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground.
A capacity crowd was in attendance at the DCC ground to witness the highly competitive match between two sides filled with ex-cricketers, politicians, businessmen, lawyers and other characters in the fun match.
Batting first Kaieteur Thunders posted 178 for 5 with former national T20 player Orin Forde leading the way with a blistering 27-ball 44 which featured eight fours and one six.
The former Stanford T20 player got support from the little maestro, former national wicketkeeper/batsman Sheik Mohamed who chipped in with a brisk 25 from 26 balls with four boundaries. The pair scored 86 runs in nine overs.
Roraima Strikers Clyde Butts was the most successful bowler with 2-24.
Butts’ team replied with 174 for 9 from their 20 overs.
Chairman of the national cricket selection panel and former Guyana cricketer Rayon Griffith blasted 57 off 29 balls an innings decorated with eight fours and two big sixes.
The knock, though in a losing cause, earned him the trophy for the best batsman. Ex-national player and Stanford T20 2006 star Lennox Cush showed his skills had not deteriorated when he bagged 4-8 from his allotted overs copping the best bowler award.
During the run chase, former national all-rounder Esaun Crandon (23) and his opening partner and senior Wartsila official Arron Fraser (5) took the score to 39 in the fifth over before Cush struck removing Fraser.
Cush, who has two hat-tricks in regional 20/20 cricket then had Crandon caught by ex-West Indies and Guyana pacer Reon King on the mid-wicket boundary and followed up with the wicket of Rabindranauth Seeram (5) who was caught by his opposite designation behind the stumps.
Ramson (13) was caught by Cush on the long-off boundary of the bowling of businessman Tony Najab.
Another Stanford T20 star Andre Percival (24) struck a six and a four and shared a crucial 61-run partnership with Griffith before he was comprehensively bowled by Cush, leaving the required ratio as 50 runs needed from 30 deliveries.
Griffith soon brought up his fifty off just 23 balls, eventually retiring in the 19th over, but Roraima Strikers soon lost Butts (5), while organizer of the match, Dexter ‘Bushman’ Garnett had his debut stint cut short as he also retired for five.
Earlier, the men in pink who were outfitted compliments of the Enmore based Tiger Sports, lost Anthony Rigby early on via the run out route. Forde and Mohamed then came together and added 86 runs in a rebuilding effort. The skipper, after looking set on a half-century was expertly stumped by wicket-keeper Seeram off the bowling of former West Indies spinner Butts, leaving the Thunders still well placed at 88 for 2.
Butts struck again two balls later this time accounting for the dismissal of Mohamed who caught by Attorney-at-Law Charles Ramson Jnr. at mid-wicket. Attorney-at-Law Sanjeev Datadin (05) was removed by national coach Crandon.
However, DCC President Alfred Mentore and David Harper added 55 runs in five overs. Mentore, a former U19 player smashed a brisk 31 from 22 balls with two fours and two sixes while Harper chipped in with one four and a six in his score of 16.
At the presentation ceremony held after the match, the organisers thanked both teams for their participation and said they hoped that next year can be bigger and better.
