A composed unbeaten knock from Georgetown’s skipper, Leon Johnson, eclipsed a virtuoso innings from Trevon Griffith to lead the defending champions past East Bank by two wickets in a tense second-round encounter of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) 50 overs franchise league at the Everest Cricket Club Ground, yesterday.
The win for Georgetown was their second in a row, helping them to maintain their winning start while East Bank lost as many.
East Bank’s undoing was attributed to a middle order collapse after they were well placed at 171 – 3. The last seven wickets then crumpled for 30 runs which saw them being dismissed for 201 in 45.2 overs.
Griffith was the spine of the innings as he hammered seven sixes and four fours on his way to 101 before he fell LBW to seamer, Qumar Torrington to end one of his finer innings. His century followed his first round 78, a mark of his fine form.
His innings went in vain since he only received support from Test batsman Vishaul `Cheesy’ Singh (45), the duo adding 72 for the second wicket before the procession began.
No other batsman reached double figures, including that of CPL sensation, Sherfane Rutherford (9) while off-spinner, Ramaal Lewis grabbed 2 for 29 from nine tidy overs to support Christopher Barnwell (2-45) who did the business early on; three run – outs at the end did not help East Bank’s cause.
Georgetown in response, nearly made a meal of it before they completed the two-wicket win, reaching 202 – 8 in 42 overs on the back of Johnson’s unbeaten 83 – his second unbeaten fifty of the tournament. His innings included six fours and two sixes to see his side home. He featured in a number of key partnerships with Robin Bacchus (26), Raymond Perez (29) and Barnwell (37) before seamers, Keon Morris (2-7) and skipper, Ronaldo Ali Mohammed (2-52) along with spinner, Trevon France (2-32) almost pulled off a victory for their side.
Century maker Griffith in an invited comment said that he intends to continue scoring runs as the Regional super 50 looms.
“The aim is just to keep scoring runs and to keep my name on the board,” the former West Indies under – 19 and first-class opener told Stabroek Sport.
“Obviously, I’m coming back from Jamaica where I played a bit but now there is work to be done, and hopefully I can keep this form,” he added while noting the wicket was a decent one to bat on as Johnson capitalized.
The other encounter in Georgetown between East Coast and West Demerara was abandoned at Lusignan without a ball being bowled due to the rain.
