By Royston Alkins
West Demerara Secondary School continued its unbeaten run in the Guyana Cricket Board/National Secondary School Cricket League when they scampered past St. Cuthbert’s Mission Secondary by 15 runs at the St. Cuthbert’s Mission Community Center ground, yesterday to win the first Demerara semifinal.
West Demerara won the toss and elected to take the first strike in the match which was reduced to 20-overs-a-side due to rain.
West Demerara struggled on the wicket which had an uneven and unpredictable bounce to post 103 all out in their allotted overs. Boundaries were as rare with the first coming in the eighth over courtesy of a lofted drive from Daneshwar Kowlessar, who top scored with 18, an innings that included two fours. He got valuable support from Aaron Seeprasad who chipped in with 17 and Nicolas Holder, 13, with one boundary. The bowling from the home side was steady as they opted not to use only seamers throughout their 20 overs.
Kevin Ferreira was the most economical with 2 for 10 from his four overs. Mark Ferreira) no relation) supported with 2 for 15 from his three overs.
The home side in their reply were 23 for 1 after five overs and seemed poised to gift their fans, who turned out in their numbers to show support, something to cheer about.
They, however, quickly slipped to 31 for 3 in the eighth over when the clean striking Mark Clenkian strolled to the crease on what appeared to be a rescue mission. He quickly got into stride and smashed off-spinner Aftab Basir for consecutive sixes to the delight of the predominantly Amerindian fans.
Clenkian seemed intent on smashing his side to victory as he took a liking to Basir by nonchalantly pushing him back over his head in the 10th over to carry the score to 54 for 4.
His resistance, however, was disappointingly ended via the run-out route for 22 in the 11th over. His innings included three sixes and his demise triggered a min-collapse which saw the home team slipping to 68 for 8. St. Cuthbert’s skipper Aldin Kattow made 12 with two boundaries but impressive fielding from the West Demerara players to run out the last batsman, ended the innings at 88 in the 18th over. Opener Keoan Kattow supported Clenkian with 14, inclusive of a single boundary. Dev Seepersaud 2 for 13 from his four overs and Lesroy Persaud 2 for 17 were the pick of the bowlers for West Demerara Secondary who will now face the winners of the Essequibo Zone in the nationwide semifinals.
