All-rounder Sherfene Rutherford grabbed three quick wickets in the final session to lead Demerara fight back against the National Under-17 team when the third and final round of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/Raj Singh Insurance Brokers Inter County Under-19 three-day tournament commenced yesterday.
Rutherford finished with 4-30 off 11 overs to help restrict the National Under-17s to 211-9 off 96 overs after they decided to bat at Everest Cricket Club. Rutherford struck early in the day when he had Joshua Persaud (10) caught at mid-on with the score on 30, but Raymond Perez and Adrian Sukwah frustrated their opponents for the rest of the session with sensible batting, adding 94 for the second wicket.
The pair grew in confidence after surviving some testing moments from Rutherford who extracted pace and bounce from a flat track. The right handed Perez was quick to take advantage of the bad balls.
He drove Carlton Jacques and Daniel Basdeo for boundaries before cutting left arm spinner Askhaya Persaud through point. Sukwah supported well as he kept the score board ticking with nudges and pushes- the pair saw their team to lunch at 81-1.
Perez brought up his fifty just after the break off 125 balls, but after cracking nine fours he was caught at cover off Malcolm Hubbard for 69. While Sukwah continued to carefully accumulate his runs, leg spinner Ershad Alli removed Steve Deonarine and Romain Muniram, both without scoring while Timothy Mc Almont (00) was caught off Hubbard as the National U17 went to tea at 151-5.
Upon resumption, Sukwah opened his shoulders-he drove Hubbard to the long-off boundary before punching Alli through point. He then drove Hubbard through long-off for his fourth four to bring up his half century off 179 balls in 200 minutes before he was caught off Alli for 52.
Demerara skipper Travis Persaud took the new ball after 88 overs and his decision paid dividends as Rutherford trapped Ashmead Nedd (14) lbw, uprooted the stumps of Sagar Hathiramani (00) and had Joshua Jones (02) caught and bowled.
Despite Rutherford’s burst, the national U17 skipper Ronaldo Ali Mohamed propped up his team’s total with a matured unbeaten 42 (7×4). Alli has so far taken 3-26 and Hubbard 2-28.
At Enmore, Essequibo coasted comfortably to 94 for 2 at lunch, with Parmesh Parsotam on 47 (4×4, 1×6) and Travis Drakes yet to score, after losing the wickets of Nathan Persaud 19 (3×4) and skipper Keemo Paul 30 (5×4, 1×6).
But the Cinderella County team, who like their opponents had a convincing second round victory to boost their chances of claiming the title, lost their way after the lunch break, losing eight wickets for 43 runs.
Parsotam failed to add to his lunchtime score, while Jonathan Fernandes made 18, as Grisean Grant, Leon Andrews and Kassim Khan had 3 wickets each for 14, 30 and 32 runs respectively for the Berbicians, who at tea were 55 for 1, with Balchand Baldeo on 32 (6×4) and skipper Shimron Hetmyer 4.
Baldeo failed to add to his teatime score for Berbice, who also had contributions from Hetmyer 42 (4×4), Clifton Lindie 41 (3×4) and Parmanand Ramdhan 31 (27 balls, 3×6, 2×4), with Khan (10) and Daniel Lewis (2) being their not-out batsmen.
For Essequibo, Akini Adams has so far taken 3 for 29 while there was a wicket each for brothers Keanu and Denzil Harry and Looknauth Chinkoo.
(Taken from Kaieteur News and Guyana Chronicle)