Malteenoes Sports Club (MSC) held on for a draw despite a late surge by Demerara Cricket Club’s batsmen Antonnel Atwell and Sherfane Rutherford who took their team to within three runs of achieving a come-from-behind victory Sunday in the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA)/Noble House Seafood’s second-division, two-day tournament.
Atwell (87) clobbered seven sixes and six fours in his unbeaten knock while Rutherford, who opened the batting, blasted his way to 60 (8×6, 1×4) as DCC reached 197-6 in 16 overs chasing 200 runs for an outright victory.
After restricting the visitors to 140 all out in their second innings, DCC was left with a T20 scenario of 200 runs to get from the final hour and six minutes with 15 overs mandated to be bowled in the last hour.
The hosts made a change at the top of the order by replacing Larry Smith, who opened with Rutherford in the first innings, with the big hitting all-rounder Dennis Squires. The move worked as Squires went for seven with the score on 10. It was soon 16-2 when Smith was run out by Steven Sankar.
Cleon McEwan joined Rutherford and they scored 63 runs in the next 4.5 overs before Rutherford was cleverly stumped by Ncosie Barker down the leg off Vishal Narayan’s bowling. Rutherford’s dismissal gave MSC a much needed breakthrough as the 17-year-old national youth player was hitting sixes to his liking, out of the park.
His exit made way for Atwell who opened his account with a huge six off Sankar that landed on New Garden Street. Atwell was in full flow after that. He dominated all of the MSC bowlers and kept DCC in the hunt for victory.
Atwell’ however just failed to get the 19 runs required from the final over of the day.
Sankar was MSC’s most successful bowler with 2-47 while Narayan and pacer Delon Dalrymple got a wicket each. The other two wickets came via run outs.
Earlier, MSC’s second innings was off to a late start due to morning rain. However, when play got underway at 1:20 p.m. the opening pair pushed the score to 35 before the first
wicket fell. In-form batsman Imran Hassan once again led the visitors’ batting with a brisk 61 while spinners Squires and Sagar Hathiramani got three wickets apiece. Scores in the match; MSC first innings 178 all out and second innings 140, DCC 119 in their first innings and 197-6 in their second.
The draw means that the defending champions DCC have been knocked out of the competition after a heavy defeat to Gandhi Youth Organisation by an innings in their previous
match.
Their only win in the competition was against minnows Diplomats.
The win puts group winners MSC and runners up GYO through from group A. MSC has so far won two matches outright and yesterday’s draw against DCC. Guyana National Industrial Corporation (GNIC) and Georgetown Cricket Club also recorded outright wins.
At Gandhi Youth Organisation ground, GNIC defeated Ace Warriors by six wickets. Ace Warriors batted first and scored 108. Murtland Ward 24
and Delon Azore 23 were the only batsmen to reach 20 as Clyde Butts bagged 5-9 and Jermain Grosvenor 3-19. GNIC made 228-5 declared in reply. Ryan Shun 77, Grosvenor 61 and Joshua Persaud 41. Ward took 2-49 for Ace Warriors who scored 185-9 innings closed, in their second innings. Ward blasted 71, Roger Aarons got 29 and Keon George 24. Orlando Kirton, Grosvenor and Sheldon Chapman had two wickets each. Set 64 to win, GNIC reached their target for the loss of four wickets, ending on 64-4 with Grosvenor scoring 27 not out. Ward took three wickets.
At Bourda, GCC beat Sophia by an innings and 11 runs. Sophia was bowled out for 109. Leroy Massiah struck 32 and Zalim Rasheed 17. Tariq Dharanlall snared 4-18, Stephon Wilson 3-26 and Nkosie Julian 2-26. GCC declared at 244-6 in response. Martin Pestano-Bell stroked an unbeaten 130 while Omesh Budram made 22. Khalil Duncan took two wickets. Trailing by 145, Sophia was dismissed for 124 in their second innings. Anand Persaud made 26 as Deonarine Seegobin grabbed 5-21, Dharanlall 2-20 and Wilson 2-22.
