Fourteen-year-old leg-spinner Niron Bissu, produced another Man-of-the-Match performance to spin Demerara past defending champs Berbice by 76 runs in second-round action of the Guyana Cricket Board U17 Inter County tournament at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC), Bourda, yesterday.
Bissu grabbed 4-11 in an excellent seven-over spell to send the defending champions, who were set a total of 161 for victory crashing to defeat.
Berbice, after dismissing Demerara for a well below par score, began their run chase in dismal fashion after being reduced to 48-4 at the beginning of the 15th over.
Hirthik Singh got the breakthrough by bowling both opener Fawaz Gafoor (10) and number three batman Jarron France (0) in the space of two deliveries with the score on 18 which left Berbice clutching at straws from there on.
Off-spinner, Dwayne Dick, then accounted for the dismissal of first-round century maker Seon Glasgow (21), while skipper Sachin Singh removed Mavran Prashad (1) to leave the defending champions staring at defeat.
It was at that point that Bissu was introduced and he ran through Berbice’s lower order without much fuss triggering a collapse that saw Berbice quickly bundled out for 84 in 38.5 overs. Bissu apart, the early efforts of Singh (3-27) and Dick, 1-6, from six tidy overs must be lauded.
Earlier, Demerara after winning the toss and electing to bat, reached 46-2 with skipper Sachin Singh (23) who laced Nigel Deodat for a few boundaries, falling to the same bowler while Himnaught Dindaal (5) was the other batsman dismissed.
The score quickly went to 54-3 when Dwain Dick (6) lost his off stump to hand Deodat his second wicket.
Navendra Persaud and Andrew Seepersaud joined forces on a rescue mission to dig their side of a hole while carrying Demerara to 97-4 before Persaud was run out for 22.
His innings included a solitary boundary. The duo, before then, ran well between the wickets with Seepersaud playing the role of the aggressor.
He was then dismissed for the top score of 32, 17 runs later with the score on 110 -5. His fighting knock included four boundaries.
The game rolled on with the last five wickets only producing 50 runs as Demerara found themselves being dismissed for 160 at the end of the 50th over with only Travon Charles (18) and Wayne Bollers (12) adding lower resistance.
Left-arm spinner Nigel Deodat, who mesmerised the top order, finished with 4-33 while Gurau Ramesh (2-35) and Prashad (2-26) played supporting roles.
