Half centuries from Zeynul Ramsammy and Mavindra Dindyal ensured the Select Under-17 establish a 58-run lead over Berbice at the end of the first day of the Hand-In-Hand Under-19 Inter-County tournament at the Everest Cricket Club ground yesterday.
The Select Under-17 won the toss and inserted the defending champions who were bowled out for 127 in 36.2 overs before closing the day on 185-6 in 54 overs.
Berbice found themselves on the back foot after seamer, Jagdesh Dowlataram got the ball to swing back into Alex Algoo to shatter his stumps in the fourth over. His six runs included a cut shot for four off the same bowler.
Despite five dropped catches, the defending champions went further down with Junior Sinclair (17) and Kevlon Anderson (08) getting out in similar fashion as both batsmen slapped deliveries from Sheldon Charles to Ramsammy at gully while Seon Glasgow (08) became Charles’ third scalp to restrict Berbice to 46-4 by the 11th over.
However, Garfield Benjamin came to the crease and batted patiently for his 32 from 77 balls. Benjamin was dropped twice and carved out four boundaries through the covers until he was trapped leg before wicket to Ramsammy.
Only Nigel Deodat (21) and Jetendra Outar (22) provided some stability as Charles and Ramsammy finished with three wickets each for 29 and 18 runs respectively.
In Under-17’s innings, Ramsammy returned to show his temperament with a 109-ball 58 consisting of eight boundaries until he was bowled by Anderson with a yorker.
The 15-year-old stabilized the batting order, sharing in a 46-run opening stand with Matthew Nandu (22), who was bowled by off-spinner, Sinclair after jumping on his back foot at the stroke of tea.
Sinclair also trapped Marvan Prashad leg before wicket after he had just cut the bowler through point for his lone boundary.
Dindyal then came to the crease and batted positively for his 56 that consisted of 10 fours, two of which were struck off of Anderson, first cut through point before dispatched over his head.
Dindyal shared in a 65-run partnership for the third wicket with Ramsammy but was caught at mid-wicket by Benjamin who covered a lot of ground to comfortably take the catch off of Glasgow.
Berbice fought back with two quick wickets as left-arm orthodox, Kelvin Umroa bowled Andre Seepersaud (06) and trapped Azizi Christiani leg before wicket for a second ball duck in the space of three deliveries.
Nevertheless, Sarwan Chaitnarine and Niran Bissu looked solid at the crease heading into day two on 18 and six respectively. Day two begins at 10.00hrs.
