An unbroken 46-run partnership for the ninth wicket between Mark Gittens and Sham Persaud gave West Demerara Mavericks a great come from behind victory by two wickets over Everest Masters on Emancipation Day in Georgetown.
Set a paltry target of 136 runs from 25 overs to win, the visitors were down and out at 89-8 in the 19th over when Gittens and Persaud joined forces to pull off the miracle. Gittens finished unbeaten on 21 and Persaud 32 not out when Mavericks reached 136-8 from 23.5 overs at the Everest Cricket Club ground. The hosts posted a below par score of 135-9 from their 25 overs but made a game of it with their bowlers coming to the party and making West Dem work for every run in the chase.
Ucil Armstrong (2/19) and Sahadeo Hardiow (2/16) applied the early pressure to leave West Dem in all sorts of trouble at 36-5 in the 10th over before the game took another twist with a gritty Prahalad Singh scoring a stubborn 21. The game changed direction again when Saheed Mohamed bagged three quick wickets to finish with 3/22 from his five overs which almost sealed it for Everest Masters.
However, Everest seemed a bowler short and could not deliver the knockout blow which saw Persaud and Gittens doing the repair job and winning the match with relative ease despite the tension.
Earlier, Mavericks opted to bowl upon winning the toss and the decision turned out to be the right one as their bowlers picked up wickets at regular intervals and eventually reduced the hosts to a decent total on a typical Everest track.
Ronald ‘Sticky’ Jaisingh got stuck in with the middle and lower order to hit the top score of 64 after the top order folded meekly. Jaisingh found two useful partners along the way to rebuild the damage from 48-4 and 72-7. With Safraz Sheriffudeen (12), the attacking Jaisingh put on 19 for the fifth wicket before the former was run out heading for a tight second run. Armstrong and Anwar Rahaman followed quickly without troubling the scorers to leave Everest in a spot of bother at 72-7 in the 17th over.
It took a brisk 62-run partnership for the eighth wicket between the right-handed Jaisingh and the level-headed Ravi Narayan (18) to give the score some respectability. Before that, opener Sahadeo Hardiow made 26 at the top of the innings but perished after playing one shot too many. Mavericks’ bowling was led by Seenarine Mathura 2/17 (3), Sudesh Persaud 1/7 (4) and Sham Persaud 1/17 (5).
A rematch is proposed at the home of the West Demerara Mavericks in the near future.
