U-15 Inter-County: Khan leads Berbice to hard-fought win over Essequibo

By Avenash Ramzan

avenash@newsroom.gy

Berbice had to dig deep to defeat a determined Essequibo in the opening round of the Guyana Cricket Board Male Under-15 Inter-county 50-over championship on Sunday at the Malteenoes Sports Club ground, Thomas Lands, Georgetown.

The hard-fought 12-run victory was inspired by a brilliant all-round effort from Arif Khan, who followed up a responsible knock with an energetic opening burst with the new ball. Kumalchan Ramnarais was also impressive with bat and ball for Berbice.

Batting first after winning the toss, Berbice did well to get to 137, being dismissed with as many as 15 overs remaining.

In reply, Essequibo, in control at 104-4, suffered a dramatic collapse that saw them being bowled out for 125 in 31.5 overs.

Essequibo impressive, but Khan steals the show

Essequibo kept a stranglehold on the Berbicians, save and except for two periods of play that proved decisive in the end.

The Essequibo quartet- Dennis Crossman, Makayah Holmes, Eron Benjamin and Jathaniel Nurse- kept a tight rein, restricting Berbice to 96-8 by the 27^th over before Khan took matters in his own hands.

The tall right-hander struck five fours and a six in an entertaining 37 not out off 23 balls, dominating a ninth-wicket partnership of 41 with Ravin Boodwah, whose contribution was three off 29 balls.

The knock by Khan gave Berbice momentum at the backend of the innings, after the Essequibo bowlers bowled with energy and purpose and the fielders provided admirable support.

Holmes got the initial breakthrough, removing Matthew Pereira without scoring before Crossman picked up the prized scalp of Adrian Hetmyer, caught behind for four.

Benjamin then rocked the middle-order with three scalps as Berbice lost wickets at regular intervals.

Apart from Khan, Kumalchan Ramnarais made 20 (22 balls; 2x4s, 1×6), Lakeram Singh scored 14 (39 balls), Chamesh Seenauth 13 (17 balls; 2x4s) and Feeaz Baksh 13 (24 balls; 1×4).

Nurse led the bowling effort with 3-9 off six overs, Benjamin had 3-22 off seven, Crossman 2-15 off six and Holmes 1-20 off six. Bomesh Lall also picked up a wicket, his four overs going for 39.

Khan then dented Essequibo in the first over, removing opener Francis Gurahoo and Omarion Smith, both without scoring off consecutive deliveries with three runs on the board.

Lall averted the hat-trick and proceeded to add 37 for the third wicket with opener Justin Dowlin before Khan removed him for 23 (28 balls; 2x4s, 1×6).

40-3 became 55-4 with Elisha Ramdatt falling via the run out route for one.

Dowlin then found a solid partner in Nurse, the pair adding 49 for the fifth wicket to put Essequibo in the ascendancy.

A hallmark of the partnership was Nurse’s ability to feed Dowlin the strike, allowing him to take the attack to the bowlers.

But just when it seemed the ‘boys in yellow’ would coast to an easy win, Ramnarais had Nurse stumped by Sohail Mohamed for eight off 30 balls (1×4) and that opened the floodgates as Essequibo lost the last six wickets for just 21 runs in the space of eight overs.

Ramnarais picked up 3-18 and Khan 3-26, both bowling six overs each.

The left-handed Dowlin, nephew of former Guyana and West Indies batsman Travis Dowlin, topscored with a fine 45 off 78 balls, an innings that included four fours and two sixes.

In the other first round game, Demerara hammered the Select XI by 265 runs at the Queen’s College ground.

SUMMARY: Demerara Under-15 402-3 from 50 overs (Emmanuel Lewis 160, Parmeshwar Ram 117, Trilok Nanan 46*; Gilbert Griffith 2-51, Danvir Seegobin 1-52) beat Select XI 137 all out from 43 overs (Rivaldo Perreira 33; Lewis 3-12) by 265 runs

The second round of the competition is set for Tuesday (January 30) with Essequibo versus Demerara at the DCC ground, Queenstown, and Berbice against the Select XI at the Malteenoes Sports Club.

Both matches are slated to start at 09:30h.