Renaldo Renee and Raymond Perez posted a massive 294 opening partnership as Demerara dominated their match against Berbice in the second round of the GCB/HIH U-19 3-Day Inter-County 2016 Competition. The match ended in a draw; both captains decided on a pre-mature end to the game, given that towards the close, chances of an outright victory were unmanageable.
Demerara resumed from their overnight score of 170/0 at the Everest Cricket Club ground with Renaldo Renee and Raymond Perez on 84 and 64 respectively. The two openers then continued their professional dominance to create a historic first wicket partnership of 294, before Perez was out by off-spinner Asif Ally for 113, to give Berbice some sense of relieve and a much needed wicket.
Sherfane Rutherford then joined Renee and they took the score to 351/2, before Rutherford, who was taking the onslaught to the bowlers, was dismissed via the LBW route off bowler Raymond Vankenic for 46. Demerara immediately announce their declaration, leaving the well set Renaldo Renee unbeaten on 165. Renee’s century came off 186 balls with 13 fours and 268 minutes in the middle.
With Demerara securing a first innings lead of 152 and with 65 overs of play left in the day, Demerara set out to pursue an outright victory. This victory goal initially appeared possible as Demerara had Berbice reeling at 42/2.
However, Matthew Hardial on 21 and Joel Seitaram on 22 consolidated and managed to take Beribce to 93/2, when during the last mandatory 15 overs, the two captains decided that victory for either team was not very likely and as such took a cordial decision to bring the match to an end.
At the Demerara Cricket Club ground, Essequibo and the select U-17s played to a draw as well. Essequibo resuming on their overnight score of 72/0 after day 2 was completely washed out would have backed themselves to claim first innings points on a perfect batting track. However, they lost opener Mark Williams, who added just two runs to his overnight score being dismissed for 58. Skipper and inform batsman Keemo Paul fell soon after for a first ball duck caught at backward point off left arm spinner Ashmead Nedd. The select U-17s continued to apply pressure as they bowled with great control, testing all the Essequibo batsmen’s patience. Essequibo eventually fell for 180 and Nedd finished with impressive figures of 4/58.
Batting a second time with a lead of 64 the Select U-17s posted 190/3 before declaring, leaving Essequibo with 15 overs to chase 255 for an improbable victory. Joshua Persaud promoted to open the innings replacing the injured Javed Karim stroked a classy 49 while man-of-the-match Kevin Sinclair followed up his first innings 48 with a composed 59. Bowling for Essequibo, Akinie Adams claimed 2/35 and Looknauth Chinkoo 2/63.
In Essequibo chase, Keemo Paul promoted himself to partner regular opener Mark Williams and they two got Essequibo off to a flying start racing to 50/5 overs but the U-17’s held their composer to claim two wickets even as Paul was smashing the ball to all parts of the ground. Paul was dismissed the third ball of the game’s final over just six runs short of what would have been a record century at the U-19 level in terms of balls faced. He made 94 off 38 balls and Essequibo was 123/3 when play was called off.
The third and final round of the competition is slated to commence on Thursday, April 21 with Essequibo taking on Demerara at the Georgetown Cricket Club ground and Berbice going up against the Select U-17s at the Wales Community Centre ground.
(Sean Devers photo)