For the second day in a row, captain Shahid Ramzan claimed the Player-of-the-Match award with a superb all-round performance to lead the Select XI to victory over East Bank in the Demerara Cricket Board’s ‘Next Generation’ Inter-Association Under-15, 50-over competition.
And Satindra Shiwdarsan starred with bat and ball on Thursday to spur East Coast to a comfortable 54-run win over West Demerara in the other third round game.
Ramzan stars again…this time at Farm!
SUMMARY: East Bank 105 all out from 23 overs (Ganesh Appanah 19, Vinesh Kalpoo 18, Tunil Suraj 10; Shahid Ramzan 4-13, Jasani Craig 3-19, Azariah Duncan 1-3, Saurav Persaud 1-7, Aditya Khan 1-10) vs Select XI 106-4 from 18 overs (Shahid Ramzan 42*, Nathan Puran 16, Roscoe Anderson 9*, Adam Mohamed 6; Jagdesh Kalpoo, Devindra Mohamed and Tunil Suraj all picked up one wicket)
After taking 3-14 and making a match-winning 45 not out against West Demerara at Transport on Wednesday, 14-year-old Ramzan returned on Thursday to take 4-13.
He then stroked a sublime 42 not out to inspire his team to victory.
New-ball pair Jasani Craig and Saurav Persaud rocked East Bank top-order with three wickets in the Powerplay, before off-spinner Ramzan cleaned up the middle-order with a tight five-over spell.
Craig was again impressive with 3-19 off six overs, while Persaud, Aditya Khan and Azariah Duncan took one each, as the East Bank lads were routed for 105 in 23 overs.
Ganesh Appanah (19), Vinesh Kalpoo (18) and Tunil Suraj (10) were the leading scorers for East Bank, whose bowlers were confronted by positive intent from the Select XI batters.
Batting at number three, Ramzan led the way with another captain’s knock, which spanned 40 balls and included four fours, while the technically correct Nathan Puran made 16 off 29.
Roscoe Anderson (09*) struck two fours to close out the match at 106-4 from 18 overs, while Adam Mohamed showed glimpses of his talent with some crisp shots in a supporting role to Ramzan.
Ramzan, who plays for Georgetown Cricket Club, has been the rock of the Select XI batting, topscoring in all three games thus far.
He made 25 in the opening round against Georgetown at the Queen’s College ground, and has a tournament average of 112, having been dismissed just once in three innings.
Runs and wickets for Shiwdarsan as East Coast
SUMMARY: East Coast 153 all out from 33.1 overs (Satindra Shiwdarsan 38, Akeem Persaud 24, Junior Dindyal 22, Nicholas Mahadeo 15; Patrice Fraser 4-34, Alwin Williams 3-25) vs West Demerara 99 all out from 32.1 overs (Joshua Williams 23, Joshua Corlette 18; Satindra Shiwdarsan 3-22, Nathaniel Sukhnandan 3-23)
Playing the LBI ground, East Coast Demerara, Shiwdarsan made a topscore of 38 (7x4s) and got support from Akeem Persaud, Junior Dindyal and Nicholas Mahadeo as East Coast posted 153 in 33.1 overs.
Patrice Fraser took four wickets and Alvin Williams picked up three for West Demerara, who were dismissed for 99 in 32.1 overs.
Leg-spinner Shiwdarsan took 3-22 off nine overs, while left-arm spinner Nathaniel Sukhnandan bagged 3-23 off 10 overs.
The five-team competition, which is being used by the Demerara Cricket Board to select its team for the Inter-County tournament in 2025, will wrap up this weekend with the final two rounds.
East Coast will next face Georgetown on Saturday at the LBI ground, while on the same day, West Demerara will take on East Bank at the Meten-Meer-Zorg ground.
On Sunday, the Select XI will collide with East Coast at LBI, while Georgetown will tackle West Demerara at the Queen’s College ground.
Matches will start at 09:00h.
