Outar, Sharma star for East Coast; Haimnarine leads Upper Dem to first win

Munesh Outar and Mickel Sharma turned in brilliant all-round performances to lead East Coast to victory over West Demerara in the fourth and penultimate round of the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) Inter-Association Under-15, 50-over competition, while off-spinner Anek Haimnarine produced a magical spell to lead Upper Demerara/Select XI to their first victory of the tournament.

At the Lusignan ground, Outar and Sharma were dominant with bat and ball, as East Coast eased to a five-wicket win in 34.1 overs.

Chasing a target of 122, the East Coast lads were led to victory by Outar, who topscored with 42 off 53 (5x4s), and Sharma, who anchored the chase with an unbeaten 40 off 96 (6x4s).

Bowling for West Demerara, Nazir Gulam took 3-26 off 9.1 overs.

Earlier, Outar (10-2-14-3) and Sharma (10-6-16-3) combined to produce figures of 20-8-30-6 to put a stranglehold on West Demerara.

West Demerara had a solid start of 37 in 8.4 overs by Parmeshwar Ram and Joshua Corlette, but lost their way once the partnership was broken by Narindra Isurdeen, who removed Corlette for six.

Opener Ram held the innings together with a fighting 63 off 99 balls, an innings that included nine fours.

Over at the Farm ground, East Bank Demerara, the home team suffered a seven-wicket at the hands of Upper Demerara/Select XI, who registered their first win of the tournament.

Led by a splendid bowling effort by Haimnarine, Upper Demerara/Select XI dismissed East Bank for a paltry 66 in 19.3 overs.

Haimnarine ran through the middle-order with superb figures of 4-4 off four overs, and received solid support from Prosper Jacobus (5-0-18-2), skipper Joshua Bollers (.3-0-0-2) and Akeem Persaud (3-0-16-1).

Jasane Craig topscored for East Bank with 16 (2×4s, 1×6); Dilshan Latchman made 15 (1×4) and Ravindra Singh 14 (2×4s).

Upper Demerara/Select XI then coasted to victory from 12.4 overs with opener Jermaine Grovesnor leading the chase with 21 (4×4s). The diminutive Makai Dowlin made 14* (2×4s), Julian Craig 10 and opener Mickel Johnson a patient nine.

Bowling for East Bank, Singh took 1-16 off 2.4 overs and Jasane Craig 1-18 off four.

The Inter-Association tournament concludes on Tuesday (December 19) with Georgetown versus East Coast at the DCC ground and Upper Demerara/Select XI against West Demerara at Meten-Meer-Zorg ground.

The lads from East Bank have completed their quota of matches and have drawn the bye for this final round.