Barakat Brothers 20/20 final…Parika Warriors clinch thrilling two-run win

Jun 11, 2008 Sports

---

Former National under-19 player Sase Narine turned in a Man-of-the-Match performance to spur Parika Salem to a thrilling two-run win against Meten-Meer-Zorg in last Sunday’s final of the Barakat 20/20 16-team cricket tournament at the Meten-Meer-Zorg ground.

Narine hit three fours in his 29-ball 37 to help Parika to 128 off the last ball of their 20 overs before he returned with his left-arm spin to take 2-23 from four overs as the home team lost eight wickets, reaching 126 off the last ball of the pulsating finale.

From the time Test Umpire Eddy Nichols and Abdul Willie called play at 14:30hrs the large and raucous crowd was entertained by scintillating cricket on a good track and heavy outfield as Meten-Meer-Zorg eventually could only score 13 of the 16 required to win in the final over. 

The atmosphere was fantastic as the final over commenced. When Orville Black slashed Mark Braithwaite for six over point off the first ball and Mark Andrew disdainfully on-drove the third ball for a boundary, the home fans were already celebrating with five needed from three balls.

However, Braithwaite kept his nerve and the last three balls could only produce just two runs including a single from the last ball with four required to win.       

Asked to bat first in sultry conditions with music pounding in-between overs, Essequibo all-rounder Trevor Benn produced a maiden first up before he ran out Yogeshwar Bachan for a duck in the second over to leave the score on 4-1.

Former Guyana under-19 pacer Ryan Hercules dumped Benn for a flat six off the first ball of the third over but the Police pacer got revenge when he bowled Hercules off the final ball as Parika Warriors slipped to 14-2 in three overs.

Jason Helyger was joined by Narine and they took the score to 41 before Heliger, who was twice miss-stumped off ex-Guyana under-19 leg-spinner Rakesh Goberdhan, was eventually bowled by Skipper Shawn McKay (2-18) for 12. Goberdhan extracted turn and bounce and finished with 0-18 from his allotted four overs.

Alim Mohamed hoisted two sixes in a cameo 16 and added 44 with Narine for the fourth wicket before the hyper active Benn returned to bowl Mohamed.

Former Guyana youth pacer Ucil Armstrong clobbered two sixes in 18 after being dropped by Benn and along with Narine, who played an array of audacious shots in his entertaining innings, took the score to 122 before Armstrong was stumped off left-arm spinner Avinash Shardanandan.

Narine was run out towards the end as Shardanandan (4-30) mopped up the tail with the last six wickets tumbling for six runs. Benn supported with 2-10 while Extras contributed 33 to the Parika’s cause.

When Meten-Meer-Zorg began their reply, Troy Khan (17) and Goberdhan (14) put together 20 for the first wicket before Goberdhan was caught off Armstrong to the dismay of the home fans.

Khan was then bowled by Narine at 53-2 before two more wickets tumbled at 59 when McKay (1) was leg before to Brian Herbert and former Guyana youth right-hander Deonauth Baksh (12) was removed by Narine who finished with 2-23.

Benn hammered two sixes and a four in 20 and put together 37 with Shardanandan (8) before the latter was bowled by Braithwaite who also had Benn caught at extra cover to set up the last over.

Parika Warriors took home $50,000 and the championship trophy while Meten-Meer-Zorg had to settle for $25,000 and a trophy. Narine received $10,000 after taking the Man-of-the-Match award.

Zeeburg, without national under-19 hopeful Balinder Shivpersaud, beat CI in the third-place play-off earlier in the day to clinch the $15,000 prize and trophy.

It was stated in Monday’s issue of the Guyana Times that Delon Helyger was allowed to play in the contest and made 13 when he was supposed to be training with the 20-man Guyana under-19 squad, but Organiser Troy Khan denied this stating that the Guyana Times story was riddled with inaccuracies and was very misleading.

“Delon Helyger did not play in the game. Shivpersaud also did not play because he was with the National under-19 squad. Delon does not even play for Parika Warriors.

They (Guyana Times) even reported that Troy Benn played the game and that is not true. I don’t know where they got their information from because they said I took two wickets with left-arm spin and I am an off-spinner who did not bowl a ball in the match,” Khan said.

He said the Guyana Times also informed that Shivpersaud received the ‘Best Batsman’ prize and Kishan Hemraj got the prize for ‘Best Bowler’ which were also not true.

“It must have been another competition they were talking about because Imtiaz Hack who scored 202 runs for CI and Shawn Jairaj, who captured 11 wickets, were the ones who received those awards. They even had the margin of victory wrong. I hope they do a correction so that the right players will be recognized,” Khan said.

---

---