By Michelangelo Jacobus
The Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) Senior T20 Blast got underway yesterday at the revered GCC ground at Bourda as the East Coast Canje Pheasants and Georgetown Panthers recorded dissimilar victories.
The East Coast Canje Pheasants faced the East Bank Eagles in the opening match and won by 26 runs after bowling them out for 92 in pursuit of 119 for victory.
Earlier, the Eagles won the toss and inserted the Pheasants to bat. In their allotted 18 overs (due to a late start following rain), the Pheasants never got going and mustered 118/6, led by skipper Rajendra Chandrika’s 54.
The Eagles had a good start with the ball, getting rid of Chandrika’s opening partner Robin Williams (2) with just 3 runs on the board. The Pheasants then lost another to leave them wobbling on 16/2 as Andrew Samaroo (2) was trapped LBW by Ricky Sergeant.
Chandrika’s experience would come in handy as he struck up a valuable 40-run partnership with Krishna Deosaran (16) to take their side out of trouble. However, the latter was dismissed with the score at 56, caught by Antony Lim off the bowling of Anand Bharat.
Again, Chandrika would be the driving force behind another key partnership, this time with Vishwanauth Ramlakhan (21). The East Coast men found the going tough and were barely scoring at a run a ball when Chandrika, trying to up the run rate, was caught by Jeremiah Scott off the bowling of Sagar Hatiamani.
At 97/4, the Pheasants could only add 21 runs more as the Eagles bowlers ended the innings strongly, picking up two more wickets along the way. Leading the bowling for the Eagles were Leon Swamy with 2/19 (4 overs) and Hatiamani with 2/15 from his four overs. In their chase, the Eagles lost their top four cheaply to be in dire straits at 37/4.
Sachin Singh snared the important wickets of Jeremiah Scott (4) and Ershad Ali (7), while Karamchand Persaud and Neeran Bani accounted for Quazim Yusuf (8) and Anthon Lim (3), respectively.
Swamy, who was good with the ball for the Eagles, was the only batter to show some fight with a battling 47 and had Hatiamani (17) for company as they combined to take their side from 37/4 to 83 when Swamy threw his wicket away with a loose shot to be caught by Bani off the bowling of Samaroo.
Hatiamani followed just two runs later, and it was game over for the Eagles as they lost their last four wickets for just seven runs. The destroyer-in-chief for the Pheasants with the ball was Samaroo with 4/14 (3.4 overs). He was well supported by Bani (3/26) and Sachin Singh (2/23). For his effort with the bat, East Coast skipper Chandrika was adjudged man of the match.
In the second fixture, the Georgetown Panthers mauled the West Demerara Jaguars to win by seven wickets, with youngster Jonathan Van Lange turning in a brilliant all-round performance.
The Jaguars won the toss, elected to bat, and limped their way to 90/9 from their allotted 20 overs, with only Richie Looknauth (25) and Narendra Persaud (22) providing any sort of resistance. Ronaldo Ali Mohamed led the way with the ball for the Panthers with 3/20 and was well supported by Van Lange (2/12) and Carlos La Rose (2/11).
In reply, the Panthers needed 17 overs to reach their required target, with opener Raymond Perez scoring an unbeaten 42 while Van Lange chipped in with 15 not out to hand their side a seven-wicket run. The three wickets to fall were Shemroy Barrington (3), Adrian Hinds (7), and Christopher Barnwell (18).
The tournament will continue next Saturday and Sunday with games at Lusignan on the East Coast of Demerara.
