The fighting spirit of the team from the Lower Corentyne/ New Amsterdam Canje area once again came to the fore on Saturday. Led by a destructive spell of left arm spin bowling from Kasim Khan with figures of 6-23 helped Lower Corentyne storm back after dropping first innings points to defeat neighbours Upper Corentyne for a come from behind win in their Jaguar Franchise cricket match played at the Port Mourant ground.
Upper Corentyne resumed the day on 22-2 in pursuit of 148 for victory and were in need of a further 126 runs. The home team found the going tough as the failed to negotiate the combined attack employed by the Lower Corentyne. Khan, who plies his trade with Young Warriors, was all over the batsmen and befuddled them with his spin, bounce and turn. His six wickets followed his first inning figures of 3-73 to end with match haul of 9-96.
Off spinner Saraj Ramsarran supported with 2-30, while pacer Raun Johnson and off spinner Gajanand Singh snared one each.
Overnight batsman Jashua Ramsammy was the only batsmen to offer and resistance with 44.
Upper Corentyne had earlier gained first innings points and were in with a chance of creating an upset when the game ended on the second day as the two teams were locked in battle. However, Lower Corentyne had other ideas.
Lower Corentyne had elected to bat first after winning the toss on the first day and was dismissed for 162. Surujnarine Kandasammy continued his good form with 66 (8×4), the prolific Jonathan Foo made 22(2×4, 1×6) with Gajanand Singh 20(2×4) and Waheed Edwards 17. They had slipped from 143-5 with the last five wickets tumbling for 19 runs.
Off Spinner Eon Hooper was the main destroyer for Upper Corentyne with 5-18, while there were one wicket each for Clinton Pestano, Rajiv Ivan, Omesh Mathura, Shaun Periera and Keon Sinclair.
At GCC, the final day match between East Coast and Georgetown was abandoned due to overnight rain.
Although there was no rain for the entire day, the sunshine was only hazy but coincidently just as the day’s play was called off at 14:00hrs the sun came out in all its glory but the damage had already been done and the outfield was deemed too soggy to play on.
East Cost who started the round in second position behind Lower Corentyne, were overtaken by West Demerara who beat West Berbice in two days in Canje, while Georgetown remained in the penultimate position.
Georgetown began the day on 63-3, 85 runs behind East Coast’s 148 after only two sessions of play was possible in the contest and were desperate to score quick runs yesterday and to try and for a win. Off-spinner Gajanand Suknanan captured 7-37 for the hosts to be the outstanding performer in the truncated match.
Both teams collected three points for the draw, while GT collected three bowling points for dismissing East Coast inside 110 overs in the first innings plus .2 of a point for fast bowler’s wickets (pacer Chris Barnwell & Renaldo Ali-Mohamed took a wicket each). GT gained 6.2 points from the game to move to 16.3 points.
East Coast only got one bowling point to give them four points from the match and 35 points in the eight-team tournament.
Heavy overnight rain also prevented any play on the third and final day between Essequibo and East Bank Demerara at the Everest Cricket Club.
The umpires called off the day’s play after lunch handing both teams three points each from the fixture with Essequibo moving to 21.1 and East Bank to 13.1.
Batting first, Essequibo were 8-1 after three overs on the first day when the rain sent the players off the field. Kevon Boodie was the lbw to Ryan Shun for five while Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Avenash Persaud were on one each.
Meanwhile, Speaking with Kaieteur Sport yesterday, coach of the Essequibo unit, Michael Franco stated that while they are disappointed that the game was rained out, there are some areas to improve on looking ahead in the tournament.
He added that he would have like to see the players being encamped for some time prior to the tournament and the Essequibo Cricket Board should have made a better effort in doing so, while adding that this an ongoing trend there.
Franco pointed out that while they are satisfied with their victory in their previous game, for players to perform consistently they must spend enough time together which will help to build team spirit.
The Coach stated that the presence of Shivnarine Chanderpaul is a plus for the team since it helps to bring the best out of the players.
The fourth round is set to commence on Friday and East Coast play L/C’tyne at Everest, West Berbice face East Coast at Enmore, West Demerara battle U/C’tyne at Wales and GT oppose E’bo at GCC.
(Taken from Kaieteur News; by Samuel Whyte and Sean Devers)