By Delvon Mc Ewan
A dominant all-round performance by Steven Jacobs led his side to a convincing victory over Essequibo as the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Development Team got off to a winning start in their GCB Senior inter-county four-day campaign yesterday at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground.
Jacobs led from the front combining his leadership skills with his bowling and batting performances in the match to ensure his team run out easy winners.
He ended the match with seven wickets and 52 runs as his team went on to claim a comfortable six-wicket win over the players from the Cinderella County.
The former West Indies U-19 player also shared a third wicket partnership (during his team’s second innings) worth 106 runs with Chanderpaul Hemraj that was instrumental in his team’s charge towards victory.
The 26-year-old former national youth captain, who wrecked Essequibo’s second innings by taking 6-36 on the second day of the match, batted positively before he was dismissed for 51 when his team was within 10 runs of victory.
Earlier, openers Shimron Hetmyer and Tagenarine Chanderpaul took their overnight partnership from 84 to 137 before Hetmyer was removed by Anthony Adams for 85. His 85 followed the 42 he made in the first innings, as the top individual scores in both innings.
Chanderpaul followed Hetmyer 12 runs later caught by Royan Fredericks off the bowling of Hemchand Persaud for 44. However, those were the only wickets that fell before the lunch interval as Jacobs, who showed signs of form and Hemraj batted positively to lunch.
After the interval both batsmen continued to score fluently, manipulating the ball into the gaps to pick up the ones, twos and sometimes even threes while dispatching every wayward delivery that was offered, to the boundary. During their team’s journey towards victory, Jacobs and Hemraj reached their fifties. Jacobs nudged a ball to long-on to reach his milestone while Hemraj got there in the over that followed with a similar shot.
As the Development Team was within sight of victory Jacobs (51) was bowled behind his legs by part-time leg spinner Ricardo Peters while Hemraj (66) stepped onto the stumps four runs away from victory.
However, David Latchaya and Kemo Paul got their team past the final hurdle as they recorded the first win of the competition just over two and a half days.
It was a match that was filled with mixed fortunes and could have gone either way heading into the third day. Fortunately, the aggressive leadership of Jacobs helped his new team prevailed in the come-from-behind win over the usually inconsistent Essequibo team.
Scores in the match; Essequibo first innings 232 all out in 73.1 overs (Ricardo Adams 56 and Brian Herbert 31 while Steven Sankar 4-36, Kelon Carmichael 3-50 and Kemo Paul 2-8). Essequibo second innings 163 all out in 37.2 overs (Parmesh Parsatan 48 and Kevon Boodie 47 while Jacobs took 6-36 and Paul 3-40),
GCB Development Team first innings 128 all out in 51 overs (Hetmyer 42 and Hemraj 27 while Anthony Adams claimed 7-34 and Hemchand Persaud 3-25). The GCB Development second innings 271-4 (Hetmyer 85, Hemraj 66, Jacobs 51 and Chanderpaul 44 while Ricardo Adams took 2-13).
