Demerara completed the championship double after they retained the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/ Hand-in-Hand Under-19 Three-day title at the Everest Cricket Club Ground, yesterday.
The Champions who finished the tournament on 25. 5 points, were in a spot of bother at 95-9, with a lead of just 119, heading into the final day which was abandoned without a ball being bowled, due to a soggy outfield. Berbice, who needed an outright win to dethrone the defending champions, might have been able to mount the challenge.
The abandonment also denied off-spinner Karan Arjpaul, who had wrecked Demerara’s powerful batting lineup, the opportunity of creating history, by taking a rare 10 – wickets in an innings. His 9 – 22, however, will nevertheless go down as one of the most impressive bowling spells at the under-19 level.
Berbice completed the tournament with 19.7 points, while the GCB Under-17 select XI and Essequibo rounded off the points table with 11.1 and 8.6 points, respectively.
Meanwhile, Demerara walked away with all the individual awards from both the one and three day formats of the tournament.
Skipper Bhaskar Yadram was adjudged the tournament’s most valuable player (MVP). Yadram scored 204 runs, grabbed 10 wickets whilst making two wicket-keeping dismissals.
Opener Raymond Perez accumulated 259 runs, which included an innings of 125 in the one day format, and 95 in the longer format, with both knocks coming off the Essequibo attack, was the tournament’s most prolific run scorer.
Left -arm spinner Kheshram Seyhodan who snared 18 wickets; his best return being 6 – 67 against Berbice, was the tournament’s most successful bowler.
The GCB sectors will now sit down to deliberate and select the national under-19 squad to participate in the Cricket West Indies (CWI) regional under-19 tournament which is slated to take place on the island of St. Kitts, from July 21 to August 28.
The national side, however, will have to do without the services of Yadram and wicket-keeper Joshua Persaud, who are unavailable for the three-day tournament, having been selected to tour South Africa and Zimbabwe with the West Indies under-19 team. The pair, however, will be available for the fifty overs format of the tournament upon their return from their West Indies assignment.
