Spinners Steven Sankar (left) and Gajanand Suknanan
The 2017 GCB/Jaguars Three-Day League got off to terrific start, kicking off with West Berbice versus Upper Corentyne, Lower Corentyne versus Essequibo and Georgetown facing East Bank with play at the Lusignan, Bush Lot and Albion grounds.
Over at Lusignan Community Center ground, Georgetown won the toss and sent Upper Demerara/East Bank in to bat. The decision that proved worthwhile for Georgetown, as their opponents found themselves in early trouble at 16-2, after fast bowlers Paul Wintz and Qumar Torrington sent back openers Browne and Sachin Singh for duck and one respectively.
Captain Robin Bacchus then entered as the first change bowler, sending back Danny Narayan to reduce Upper Demerara/East Bank to 24-3. Fast bowler Joshua Wade then took out Ronaldo Ali Mohamed caught at short leg for duck, to make the score 27-4.
Bacchus then introduced spinners Gajanan Suknanan and Steven Sankar who made batting even more difficult for their opponent, as Upper Demerara/ East Bank came crashing to 115 all out off 39.3 overs. Batting Upper Demerara/East Bank, Vishual Singh made 32, Sherfane Rutherford 19, Ershad Ali 18 and Totaram Bishun 13.
Bowling for Georgetown, Gajanan Suknanan grabbed 3-24 and Steven Sankar 3-38. Wintz, Torrington, Wade and Bacchus each took a wicket.
Georgetown in reply, had a minimum of 58 overs to bat out the day’s play. However, Upper Demerara/East Bank pace bowlers of Ali Mohamed and Rutherford had other ideas, as Ali Mohamed, clean bowled Martin Pestano-Bell and Sunil Singh, while Rutherford had National Under-15 captain Marvan Prasad comprehensively bowled for four to leave Georgetown 22-3.
Nevertheless, Bacchus and Dexter Solomon consolidated, to post a fourth wicket partnership of 71, before Bacchus was adjusted LBW to Rutherford for a solid 51. Rutherford also had Paul Wintz caught and bowled, Solomon LBW for 29, both Sankar and Suknanan LBW for ducks, and Torrington caught Seegobin without scoring. Devon Lord and Joshua Wade were the only other batsmen to make double figures with 19 and 12 respectively.
Sherfane Rutherford ended with superb figures of 7-48 from 16 overs. Upper Demerara/East Bank in their second innings were 20-2 off seven of the remaining 19 overs that were left in the day’s play, when play ended at 17:30h.
With sunny weather at Albion, Lower Corentyne took on Essequibo with Essequibo winning the toss and electing to bat. They made 274 off 61.2 overs. Lower Corentyne went into bat and before close of play reached 62-3 off of 26 overs.
In the West Berbice versus Upper Corentyne game, Upper Corentyne tallied up 152 runs in 32.2 overs, while West Berbice made 93 all out.
