Christopher Barnwell smashed a belligerent century to power the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) to a commanding eight-win over the Everest Cricket Club (ECC) in their Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA)/GISE/Star Party Rental/Trophy Stall first-division, two-day encounter on the final day at the DCC ground, yesterday.
It was an exhibition of six hitting from the burly right-hander who hammered his side to what seemed like an unlikely victory which sent the club’s supporters into a frenzy.
Set 193 for victory from 19 overs, DCC began like a house on fire and raced to 51 in the sixth over with Sherfane Rutherford (12) and Raymond Perez giving their side the ideal start.
Skipper Barnwell then stepped to the plate and hammered an unbeaten 103 which was decorated with 12 maximums and four fours to see his side to victory inside 14 overs.
The skipper had support from Perez (32) and Joshua Persaud who was there at the end with 37. Both men, along with the skipper took Everest’s bowlers to the cleaners to spur the GCA T20 champions to a clinical victory.
The final day’s play began with DCC resuming on 194 – 6, trailing Everest by 88 runs with Perez returning to the crease on 63 after losing Barnwell (89) in the final over of the day on day one.
He added 32 to his overnight total before falling to Gudakesh Motie five short of his maiden first-division century. His innings included eight fours and two sixes.
DCC’s lower order then hung on to push their side past Everest’s first innings total with Nkosi Barker (37) and Ashmead Nedd (25) adding precious lower order runs before DCC was dismissed for 297, earning a lead of 15 runs.
Motie was the pick of the bowlers, snaring 5-84 for the visitors.
Everest, in their second innings, wiped off the deficit and reached 28 – 1 at the luncheon interval.
Yadram (11) was the man dismissed, falling LBW to Rutherford as Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Adrian Sukwah who survived a few close shaves took Everest safety to the interval.
The duo, after the break, took the score to 51 before Nedd bowled Sukwah (15).
Chanderpaul, meanwhile, remained tight in defence and also struck the ball sweetly through the cover region.
DCC, however, managed to strike twice with the score on 80 when off-spinner Beaton removed Akshaya Persaud (14) and first innings century maker Rajendra Chandrika (0) to leave the score on 80 – 4.
Leg-spinner Steven Sankar got into the act and snapped up a double strike of his own by removing Ronaldo Renee (16) and Chanderpaul (42) for a knock which included six lovely timed fours.
Those strikes left the score on 120 – 6. Sankar had a third when he dismissed Travis Mohammed (5).
Motie all the while, who watched wickets tumble from the other end, started to free his arms and swatted the spinners for several boundaries to push the score along as he soaked up time while extending Everest’s lead.
The left-hander then tore into Sankar and Carlton Jacques, smashing the duo out of the park before falling to the latter – the last man dismissed- for an entertaining 85 which included four fours and nine towering maximums.
His innings propelled Everest to 207, earning a lead of 192. Rutherford ended with 3-15 while Sankar snatched 3-61 as the pick of the bowlers.
