The fifth round match in the GCB Jaguars three-day Franchise between East Bank and West Berbice ended in a draw at the Enterprise ground despite Leg-spinner Danny Narayan’s 5-30 which followed up his 72 for East Bank on Saturday.
East Bank began the final day in bright sunshine on 275-8, still 132 runs behind West Berbice’s 407-9 declared with former East Bank Skipper Steven Jacobs on 21 and National under-17 off-spinner Sagar Hathiramani on two.
Keyron Fraser captured his fourth wicket when he dismissed Hathiramani before he had added to his overnight score with the total on 278-9.
Jacobs and Budhan Baksh saw the 300 posted to give East Bank their third batting point but with the last wicket partnership on 36, Jacobs now finding his groove, was taken at the wicket off spinner Collis Butts for 36 an hour into the day’s play, leaving Baksh not out on 23 with four boundaries.
Fraser, who hit an unbeaten 120 batting at number 10 in West Berbice’s first innings, finished a fine match by capturing 4-52, while Kevin Jawahir supported with 3-70.
When West Berbice began their second innings with a lead of 93 National U-19 All-rounder Sherfane Rutherford induced Avishkar Sewkarran (4) to touch one to West Indies U-19 Wicket-Keeper Tevin Imlach with just 19 runs on the board and by Lunch the Region five Franchise had progressed to 32-1.
After the interval, Leon Andrews, who faced 67 balls for 24 and Andrew Dutchin who took 84 balls for his 29, made no genuine effort to score as quickly as possible and declare to set East Bank a target they would try to go after and be possibly bowled out.
In a battle of the bottom of the table teams, neither team seemed too interested in forcing a sensational win and with the score on 38 the left-handed Andrews tucked Ershad Ali to short mid-wicket, while Raffel Estraido, who hit two sixes and two fours in a cameo 32-ball 21 and seemed intent on getting himself out, was caught at forward short leg after he was dropped twice to leave the score on 63-3.
Just when Dutchin (29) was looking well set to make a meaningful score to add to his first innings 71, he was caught and bowled by Narayan even as East Bank continued to their faulty catching.
Narayan then sent back Jawahir (6), Brentol Woolford, who took 77 minutes for his 16 and Rennison Mitchell (0) as three wickets tumbled in the space of a run to leave the score on 105-7.
Steffan Adams (22), Fraser (10), Collis Butts (10*) and Sherwin McPherson (16) all got starts without going on to big scores as the Berbicians slipped from their Tea time score of 120-7 to 180 all out leaving East Bank the impossible task of making 274 to win in a minimum of 15 overs.
East Bank in their second innings reached 12 without loss when the game was called off at 16:35hrs.
The next round starts on Friday with East Bank playing Upper Corentyne at Everest, West Berbice coming up against Georgetown in Canje, Essequibo battle East Coast at Imam Bacchus ground on the Essequibo Coast and West Demerara hosting Lower Corentyne at Wales.
West Berbice moves to 26 points, while East Bank, who only managed 5.2 points from the last round moved to 21.2 and remain in the cellar position.
With just two rounds remaining in the League, East Bank will need to go back to the drawing and improve in all aspects of their game with their poor catching and batting order being the most pressing issue. Imlach and Jacobs, two of the better batsmen in the team are batting too low in the order, while Hathiramani was used too late in this round.
Scores: W/B’ce 407-9 dec & 180, E/Bank 314 & 12-0.
(Taken from Kaieteur News)