In pursuit of Essequibo’s total of 232 all-out, the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Development team were 60-1 at the end of the first day’s play in the first round of the GCB Inter-county 4-day tournament yesterday at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground.
After restricting the team from the Cinderella County to 232, the Development team reached 60-1 in 20 overs, with Shimron Hetmyer and Chanderpaul Hemraj the unbeaten batsmen on 27 and 11 respectively. Tagenarine Chanderpaul was the batsman that got out after he was bowled by Essequibo’s skipper Anthony Adams for 11.
Essequibo won the toss and opted to take first strike, but were restricted through reckless batting by the batsmen and faced with disciplined bowling from the Development team.
Kelon Carmichael, who recently returned from playing professional cricket in the United Kingdom, took the first three wickets for the Development team. His first strike came when he had Royan Fredricks (9) caught by Steven Sankar. He then bowled Kevon Boodie for six and followed up with the dismissal of Essequibo’s top scorer Ricardo Adams for 56. Ricardo Adams, who entered the crease with the scorecard reading 25-2 shared a third-wicket partnership of 80 runs with Ricardo Peters (44) before he was dismissed trying to thump Carmichael out of the ground. After Adams’s reckless dismissal, Essequibo slipped from 105-3 to 136-6 as Sankar and Steven Jacobs made quick inroads.
Sankar removed Shivindra Hemraj (13) and Parmesh Pasotan (0), while Jacobs took the wicket of Peters for 44 from 103 deliveries. Anthony Adams (27) was the next batsman to be dismissed when he was given out leg-before-wicket to Sankar.
With the possibility of their team being dismissed for under 200 runs looming, Mark Gonsalves (29) and Brian Herbert (31) joined forces, adding 49 runs for the eighth wicket before Gonsalves became Kemo Paul’s first victim.
Shortly after, Essequibo were eventually dismissed, leaving the Development team with just over an hour in the day’s play to bat. Sankar led the way for the Development team with 4-36 from 14.3 overs, receiving support from Carmichael (3-50) and Kemo Paul (2-8) while Jacobs collected the other wicket.
Although the day’s play was interrupted by rain, more than 90 overs were bowled. The Development team will resume their innings today at 10 am, 172 runs adrift of Essequibo’s total.
