By Michaelangelo Jacobus
The highly-anticipated George-town Cricket Association (GCA) Pepsi sponsored 50-Overs first-division tournament got off to a lopsided start yesterday as the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) thrashed Everest by 297 runs.
Playing on home turf, DCC won the toss and elected to take first strike; a decision well justified when their allotted 50 overs were up. Opener Brandon Jaikarran did not allow the early loss of his partner Raymond Perez (1) to affect him as he played shots all around the ground to register 132, an innings which included 17 fours and three maximums. Jaikarran and national U-19 skipper Jonathan Van Lange (96) and veteran all-rounder Christopher Barnwell (120) contrived to massacre the Everest bowlers enroute to registering a whopping 456 runs off the bat. Van Lange who narrowly missed out on a century shared big stands with Jaikarran and Barnwell while Nkosi Beaton (39) had a solid contribution at the end. It also helped that Everest were six overs behind the over rate and due to being behind, DCC were awarded 24 additional runs, four per over. At the end of 50 overs, DCC’s total stood at a mammoth 480/7. A Boyce and A Tilku took 2/29 and 2/60 respectively for Everest.
Facing the daunting prospect of chasing 481 for victory, Everest’s innings never took off and they were bundled out for 183 losing by a deficit of 297 runs. The only form of resistance came from V. Mangal who top scored with 42 while the next best score came from Tilku (20). DCC’s ‘destroyer-in-chief’ was Inderjeet Nanan who claimed 4/24 (five overs) while Beaton came back with the ball to snare 3/48 (nine overs) and Ezekiel Wilson chipped in with 2/39 (eight overs).
The tournament continues today with GCC facing Transport at the latter’s homeground while GDF and Police square off at DCC. Malteenoes will host the Muslim Youth Organization (MYO) at home as the weekend’s action concludes.
