Jaguars three–day champions Essequibo along with Upper Corentyne, Lower Corentyne and West Demerara earned first round wins in the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/ Jaguars one-day league which began yesterday with games across the country.
Essequibo, riding high after their three–day success, continued in that mould by defeating West Berbice by 79 runs at the Imam Bacchus ground in the 30 overs-a-side reduced game.
Essequibo, after winning the toss, cantered to 189 for 9 from their allotted overs as Kevon Boodie top scored with 35 while Kemol Savory and Ricardo Adams contributed 34 runs each.
Kelvin Sinclair grabbed 4 – 30 and Wakar Hassan 2 – 12 for the Berbicians who were then dismissed for 111 in 28. 3 overs with Adams returning to claim 4 – 28 to complete a tidy all-round effort. Over at Port Mourant, Upper Corentyne scored a one wicket win over East Coast in their encounter. East Coast, after winning the toss, posted 252 before being dismissed in the 49th over. National Under – 19 batsman Ramnarine Chatura was the mainstay of the innings, scoring an unbeaten 57, He received support from Ameer Khan who scored 52 and Kamesh Yadram, who scored 41.
Upper Corentyne in reply scampered home with a wicket to spare as Lindel Lewis (66) and Kandasammy Surujnarine (64) scored half-centuries to see off Yadram’ 5 – 47 and hand their side the victory.
Meanwhile, Lower Corentyne hammered Georgetown by a mammoth 113 runs at Albion to get their campaign off to a flyer.
Lower Corentyne, after being inserted, made 249 – 6 from their allotted overs. Royston Crandon led the way, slamming 101 while Devon Clement (35), Jason Sinclair (38) and Jonathon Foo (34) all contributed to the total. Bowling for Georgetown, Paul Wintz (2-48) and Ashmead Nedd (2-27) had decent returns.
Georgetown, however, were bundled out for 135 in 38 overs as national spinner Veerasammy Permaul continued to wield his magic grabbing 4 -26 Crandon returned to collect 3 – 11 runs to complete a commanding victory. The final match of the opening round saw West Demerara getting the upper hand over East Bank by 32 runs.
West Demerara, batting first, were dismissed for 167 in the 43 over of their innings with Tagenarine Chanderpaul scoring an unbeaten 70 which included four boundaries as West Indies Under – 19 selectee Ronaldo Ali Mohamed picked up 3 – 26 and Trevor France 3 – 29.
East Bank fell short by 32 runs, being dismissed for 136 in 37.3 overs with Romario Shepherd capturing 3 -23 and Richie Looknauth supporting with 3 -32.