WD Masters and Bel Air Rubis Ultra Tec kept their quarter final hopes alive with five-wicket wins yesterday in the Demerara Zone of the Guyana Cricket Board/Tropical Springs Over-40 T20 tournament at the Enmore Community Centre ground.
The opening affair saw WD Masters beating Regal Masters in an 18-over-a-side affair. Following early morning rain, Regal elected to bat upon winning the toss and posted 119 for seven while WD Masters recovered from an early setback to reach 120 for five with five balls to spare.
The Region Three side was reduced to 20 for four by the sixth over after Prahalad Singh was run out without facing a ball. However, vice-captain Chabiraj Ramcharran guided his side over the line with an unbeaten 55.
During his 35-ball innings, Ramcharran clubbed one four and four sixes, one of which sailed into the bushes towards the northern end of the ground at mid-wicket to bring up his half century.
Ramcharran shared the responsibility of leading the fightback along with his skipper Sudesh Persaud who controlled the innings with 31.
Together the added 91 runs for the fifth wicket.
Persaud showed the value of rotating the strike as he faced just two dot balls in his 26-ball innings that featured a six and a four before he was bowled by Chien Gittens in the penultimate over.
Conrad Boele whose early strikes saw him ending with two for 12 from his three overs, was the pick of the bowlers.
Earlier, Rudolph Baker led the charge in Regal’s innings with a top score of 45 at the top of the order. Baker pummelled three sixes and three fours in his 25-ball innings before holing out to Boodram Sugrim at deep square leg.
Baker added 35 runs for the second wicket with Roy Persaud (19).
WD Masters were sloppy in the field, putting down three catches including chances off Baker and Persaud who were on 34 and 10 respectively.
Gittens was also dropped on one and went on to make 16 not out. Left-arm spinner, Steve Haripal picked up two for 15 while Sugrim grabbed two for 12 and Ramcharran chipped in with one for eight from his one over.
Meanwhile, in the afternoon match-up, a final over thriller saw Bel Air Rubis securing victory over RP Construction.
RP Construction won the toss and opted to bat first but managed 87 all out in 19.3 overs while Bel Air reached 88 for five with two balls to spare.
Shaun Massiah piloted the chase with an unbeaten 21 as he ticked the scoreboard over with quick singles and a four which was pulled through mid-wicket. Massiah added 26 for the third wicket with Nadir Baksh who made 17 but two run outs made the chase trickier for Bel Air as RP Construction kept the match alive.
Richard Ramdeen top scored with 27, highlighted by one four and one six and a final boundary by Oslyn Batson sealed the victory.
Earlier, RP Construction’s main architect was Jai Kishun who top scored with 29 and a late 15-run cameo from Khemraj Jailall. Batson picked up two for six while Baksh grabbed two for 10.
With the victories, both WD Masters and Bel Air moved to 10 points and await the final round on Saturday.
