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.