A ruthless bowling performance by Berbice enabled them to easily crush Essequibo by 79 runs via the Duckworth/Lewis method yesterday and book a place in today’s final of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Under-19 Inter-county 50 over tourney against Demerara.
Played at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, Berbice were knocked over for 146 runs in 46 overs after West Indies U19 vice-captain and Essequibo skipper Keemo Paul (3-28) and Siddiq
Mohamed (4-34), ran through the batting order despite a mature knock of 56 from top-scorer Matthew Hardyial who hit four boundaries.
However, Berbice would then return the favor as they sent the Cinderella County boys crashing for a paltry 67 all out from 19 overs.
The carnage was served up by Man-of-the-match Joel Seitaram who ended with 4-2 from eight overs, pacer Sylus Tyndall (3-10) and left-arm spinner Asif Ally who captured (3-12).
While the weather provided a few interruptions during the course of the day, it turned out to be a relatively simple defence for Berbice who began with Tyndall removing the opening pair of top-scorer Mark Williams (24) and Nathan Persaud (05).
Mohamed, who bowled well for his four wickets earlier, was removed by Seitaram for 12, the next best score for his team while six of his teammates including the West Indies U19 all-rounder Paul who was also bowled by Tyndall, were sent packing for ducks.
At 57 for 8 and with most of their recognized players back in the pavilion, Essequibo folded in no time as Ally snapped up the final two wickets of Lesley Allen who was trapped lbw for nought and Reaz Khan who was stumped by wicket-keeper Adrian Sukwah for 4, leaving Miguel Jones yet to come off the mark.
When the match began, Berbice sought to take advantage of batting first but were dealt some early blows by Khan, who removed opener Alex Agloo for 17 and a double strike by Paul which accounted for the wickets of Sukwah (05) and Sasenarine Sookhoo (02), which left the score at 50-3.
Hardyial duly smashed his fifth delivery for a boundary as he got his innings underway.
Together with Brandon Prashad, the pair helped to revive the innings before Mohamed removed the latter for 20.
The top-scorer dug in as he looked to put away the bad deliveries. He reached his half century but then he was outfoxed by Mohamed and caught by Akinie Adams.
With the resistance by Hardyial over, Mohamed snapped up two more wickets while the left-arm spinner Adams (1-10) pinned Seitaram for a duck as last man Ally remained unbeaten on one when the innings ended.
The final match will bowl off today from 9:30hrs, weather permitting.
