By: Royston Alkins
Defending champions, Chase Academy, came a step closer to retaining the Guyana Cricket Board, Ministry of Education, National Secondary Schools limited-overs title after they defeated Mahaicony Secondary by eight wickets at the Fairfield Sports club ground, yesterday.
Mahaicony’s skipper and National Under 15 player, Shoaib Shaw won the toss and opted to take the first strike on a wicket that had a bit of moisture, a decision that was soon regretted by the hosts.
They were quickly bundled out for 46 in 19.4 overs, underscoring a poor batting display by the fact that none of their batters reached double figures.
Extras contributed 17.
Sachin Singh, who opened the bowling, got things rolling for Chase when he knocked out the middle stump of Omprakash Bharrat for one in the first over to give Chase an ideal start.
Things went downhill from there as the hosts found it difficult to score on a heavy outfield. That spurred Chase’s skipper Ashmed Nedd to bring himself into the attack earlier that usual with the score on 11-1 in the seventh over. He kept things tight and created pressure for medium pacer Kadeem Parris who took a wonderful one-handed catch to dismiss Andray Alphin for four and bowled Chatterpaul Durga without scoring the very next delivery to leave the score on 13 – 3 in the 10th over.
Parris continued to wreck havoc by dislodging both Joshua Tappin and Buneshwar Dharamdat for no score to take his fifth wicket, ending the match with for 6 for 17 from six overs. He received support from fellow medium pacer, Tairhus Payne who took 2 for 5 from three tidy overs while off spinner Dwayne Dick 1 for 4, Singh 1 for 5 and Nedd 0 for 11 from four overs all contributed to the tidy bowling effort.
Chase’s reply got off to a shaky start after opener Garrick Persaud (00) flicked left-arm seamer Windell Fordyce straight to square-leg with the score on six in the first over. They received another scare when Fordyce got a delivery to cut back and bowl the in-form Dick who batted at number three. That, however, was the last bit of success for the home team as skipper Nedd and Singh, both national youth cricketers, batted their side to victory reaching 47 for 2 without any other hiccups and nearly 20 overs to spare. Singh finished on 20 not out while Nedd ended on four not out.
Left-arm seamer Fordyce was the lone wicket taker for Mahaicony, ending with 2 for 13 from three overs. Chase will now play the winners of the Berbice zone Friday for a spot in the final.
