After three rounds, Demerara will face an uphill task as they try to reclaim the Guyana Cricket Board (GCA)/ Dave West Indian Imports Under-15 tournament in a clash against defending champions, Berbice today at the Everest Cricket Club Ground.
While both teams have defeated Essequibo and President’s XI, Berbice have had the upper hand, as they had already defeated Demerara in a low scoring affair at the same venue in round two.
However, with a convincing victory over President’s XI on Thursday, the morale in the Demerara camp is high.
After dismissing the President’s XI for 88 and Essequibo for 45 and then turning up with the bat to win by four and nine wickets respectively, Demerara will be hoping their bowling turns up when they try to avenge their loss to Berbice.
Captain Romel Datterdeen has been exception with the ball with figures of 2-7 and 2-12 already while Chanderpaul Ramraj had impressive figures of 4-6 but went wicket less in his last match. Their bowling attack with the likes of Thaddeus Lovell and Alex Ali it will be a treat and it will be interesting to see how the Berbice batting line up copes with this attack.
Berbice, heavily dependent on spin, has bamboozled the entire competition to date taking 30 wickets in their three matches, as the oppositions crumbled for 68, 49 and 50.
Amongst the wickets was Johnathan Rampersaud who claimed the only five-wicket haul of the tournament following up with 4-13 in the next match after capturing 4-21 in the opening round, making him the leading wicket taker to date.
Rampersaud’s bowling will be complemented by the bowling of Jeremy Sandia who has bagged 4-10 and 3-2 already while Boodram Lakeraj has been consistent with five wickets in total.
Both teams have been giving away a lot of extras and will try to work out this issue today as the outcome could hinge on the better fielding team.
Throughout the tournament, the batting performance has been dismal but Berbice, only given the opportunity to bat first once, is the only team to post a score in excess of 100 as the bowlers seem to have outshone the batsmen.
Berbice will be dependent on in form batsman Zenyol Ramsammy who top scored with 35 in the previous game along with Rampersaud, Mahendra Gopilall and Rampertab Ramnauth to see them posting or chasing down any sizable total.
But Demerara with the likes of former Guyana under-15 player, Shamar Yearwood, Nicholas Rajpat, Movinda Dindyal and Datterdeen in the mix will not be easy to deal with.
The presentation is expected to take place following the conclusion of the match.
