In a one-sided contest at the Wakenaam Community Centre Ground yesterday, Sans Souci Jaguars romped to a 55-run victory over Good Success to win the inaugural Birbal Contracting T20 title.
Despite a horrendous 20-minute shower that swept across the island, good work from the community, aided later by blistering sunshine allowed play to begin at 14.20 hours with no time lost.
Good Success won the toss and inserted Jaguars who moved from 29-2 in the first six overs to 157-6 from their full quota. In reply, the hosts could only manage 102 in 17.5 overs.
Over 1000 residents, including Regional Executive Officer of Region Five, Ovid Morrison, turned out and packed themselves in the main pavilion of the second largest island in the Essequibo to support their teams and were encouraged by consistent boundaries.
A 55-ball 70 from Dellon Osbourne proved vital in posting a difficult total for the Jaguars after Zameer Zaman and Bheesham Moses were dismissed in the powerplay.
Osbourne’s Man-of-the-Match performance was decorated with five fours and four sixes, one of which was hoisted over long-on and into a resident’s yard inches away from the pot that was “bush cooking” by some spectators.
Osbourne, who was dropped three times, shared in a 72-run partnership with skipper, Siddiq Mohammed who made a 19-ball 32. Mohammed was brutal towards the back end of the innings with 26 runs coming from the 18th over.
Nokta Moses chipped in with a 22-run cameo.
Nazeer Mohammed took 3-14 with support coming from Devindra Hansraj with 2-15.
The chase was plagued with wickets falling consistently despite five catches going down.
Off-spinner, Zameer Zaman was the architect of the destruction, taking 4-17.
Opener, Mahesh Ramnarine, top scored with 27 and was supported by a 23-run cameo from Vickram.
After the match, the Region Five REO called out the players for their sloppy work in the field but encouraged them to do better if they want to make a cricket a career.
.The sponsor, Abdel Birbal, who is celebrating his birthday today thanked the community for coming out in their numbers and pledged his continued commitment to the development of Wakenaam and sports.
“I would like to thank you all for coming out and showing your support, this means a lot to the development of the island and with unity we can achieve anything. The tournament was a success and I remain committed to assisting the development of the island,” he said.
In addition to their $50,000 prize, the best student writing the annual Common Entrance Examinations from Sans Souci received $10,000.
Also, a dominoes tournament was held with Super 6 winning with 80 games ahead of V Net with 78 games and All Stars with 72 games.
