A match defining all-round performance from Richardo Adams saw Essequibo ease their way past Lower Corentyne for a three wicket win in the latest round of the Guyana Cricket Board 50-over Franchise League yesterday at the Albion Community Development Centre ground.
Fresh from the Caribbean Premier League, Veerasammy Permaul was appointed captain of Lower Corentyne, won the toss on his first outing and surprisingly elected to bat first with the wicket having some moisture.
Permaul would later regret the decision as his team lasted only 29 overs, rolled over for 110. Essequibo cruised, stuttered and then survived a late scare to reach 114-7 in 36.2 overs.
Essequibo got off to a horrid start, leaking a lot of extras and missed on the capitalization of a conventional runout of the second ball of the match.
This did not cost them as Jason Sinclair was trapped leg before wicket (LBW) off the next delivery while his younger brother, Junior who was fishing consistently missed a late swinging ball from Joshua Jones after sharing a 43-run stand with Kevlon Anderson.
Anderson, the only mainstay in the innings lost partners rapidly including the experienced Jonathan Foo who tried to pull a Nial Cadogan delivery only to pop a simple return catch while Seon Hetmyer’s wicket signalled both the introduction of spin for the first time and the collapse with Lower Corentyne 60-4.
Ricardo Adams’ left-arm orthodox proved to be gold as he also removed Permaul in the same over while disposing of Karan Arjpaul and Anderson.
Anderson faced 71 balls for his 54 runs, striking three fours and was the lone batsman to show some resistance with Kelvin Umroa’s 10 the only other double figure score.
Adams was assisted by his captain, Anthony Adams, who also bowls slow left arm, in ripping through the lower order.
Ricardo Adams ended with 4-26 while Anthony Adams returned 3-24 from eight overs each with Cadogan, Ronsford Beaton and Jones taking one wicket each.
In the chase, Kevon Boodie and Kemol Savory looked to bring it home after the loss of Mark Williams to Kassim Khan.
Khan struck once again, removing the set Savory who tried to clear the boundary, only to pick out Junior Sinclair in the deep at long on for a knock of 20. Richardo Adams then saw his side go to lunch at 55-2 and upon resumption, the pair carried their side to 93-3 before Boodie trying to hit against the breeze held out to the long off fielder for 27.
Umroa then struck twice in the same over as Chetram Persaud and Anthony Adams were both trapped LBW to the left arm spinner.
Permaul got into the action with the wicket of Richardo Adams who tried to sweep only to get a leading edge to Foo at second slip, ending his knock worth 31 runs.
Despite that, Beaton’s cautionary batting and a huge swing from Cadogan that connected for a long off six ended the match.
Umroa ended with 3-17 while Permaul and Khan picked up two wickets each.
Meanwhile at Port Mourant, West Berbice coasted to a seven-wicket win over Upper Corentyne.
West Berbice won the toss and elected to field and bowled out Upper Corentyne for 51 in 24 overs before chasing down 52 in 67 balls, losing three wickets in the process.
Gudakesh Motie was the main destroyer of the Upper Corentyne unit, claiming 4-16 while Kevin Jawahir (2-8), Kevin Sinclair (2-10) and Javed Karim (2-6) supported well. Shawn Perreira’s unbeaten 10 and Andy Mohan with 10 also were the only double figure scores.
Karim returned to blast three fours in his knock of 27 to register a comfortable win.
