The final of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) Magic Moments 20/20 tournament for teams in the Upper Corentyne area will be played Sunday at the Cut and Load Ground with No. 48 Challengers waiting on either Skeldon or No. 72 to join them as finalists.
Challengers earned themselves a spot in the final with a 15-run win over arch rivals, No. 64 Fighting Marines.
Challengers took first strike, posting 111 from 19.2 overs with Munesh Lalu top scoring with 27 and Devin Baldeo supporting with 18.
Devindra Budhoo recorded the best figures, impressing with 3-14 while Leonard Sandy chipped in with 2-28.
In reply, Marines were dismantled for 96 inside 18 overs with Sandy and Budhoo returning to stroke 26 and 16 respectively but it was Balram Samaroo, Jaipaul Baijnauth and Samie Daharoop with three wickets each going for 11, 4 and 32 respectively that swung the game in Challengers’ favour.
Earlier in the day, No. 72 All Stars broke the hearts of the supporters of the home team, Cut and Load, registering a marginal four-run win to go into the semifinal. All Stars scampered to 100 all out in 19.2 overs with Sanjay Deschan top scoring with 22 and Mahendra Bhoj and Trishan Ramdass adding 17 and 11 respectively. Abdullah Ajib was the main wicket taker, bagging 4-16 while Ramesh Persaud and Imran Khan collected 2-7 and 2-17 correspondingly.
Cut and Load in reply were skittled out for 96 from 19 overs as Wayne Garrett (2-26), Pradeep Gobin (3-13), Ramdass (2-15) and Taleshwar Baichand (2-17) stemmed the flow of runs despite Persaud returning to top score with 18.
Skeldon Community Centre gained the other semifinal spot after defeating Scottsburg United Cricket Club.
Playing at the No. 73 Ground, Scottsburg United were dismissed for 108 from their 20 overs with Rajendra Sooknandan and Alex Burnett each scoring with 15 while extras contributed a healthy 30 runs. Kelvin Maynard’s 3-8 and Junior Blair’s 2-16 were the best of Skeldon’s bowlers.
Skeldon raced to 109-4 from just 10.4 overs as George Davis smacked 20 not out and Edward Julian contributed 19 not out.
Rayman Lowenfield 2-17 and Adrian Jeffrey (2-22) bowled well in a losing cause for Scottsburg United.
