G/Town capture Gizmos & Gadgets U-17 cricket title

Aug 28, 2008 Sports

Devers takes Man-of-the-Match award

Ricardo Devers

Man-of-the-Match Ricardo Devers (4-14) and his GYO teammate

left-arm pacer Andre Stoll (3-9) impressed with the ball before Dayanand Roopnarine hit a fluent unbeaten 35 as Georgetown whipped East Bank by six wickets in yesterday’s final of the Demerara Cricket Board’s Gizmos & Gadgets Inter-Association 50-overs under-17 cricket final at the Everest ground.

Stoll struck telling body blows at the top of the order to leave the score 27-3 before Devers, who took three wickets in fours balls during his crafty five-over spell, completed the demolition job as East Bank, despite a 19-run last wicket partnership, catapulted to 69 all out off 28.1 overs on a heavy outfield.

Roopnarine’s 35 lasted 54 balls and included three boundaries. The left-hander added 46 for the second wicket with no-nonsense GNIC opener Quincy Ovid (15) as the City side raced to 80-4 from 16.4 overs in the game which was reduced to a 30-over per side affair because of a late start due to overnight rain.

Stoll, who swung the ball in sultry conditions, removed Skipper Shameer Fazal for a duck in the day’s second over and East Bank, invited to bat by the hosts, never recovered although little left-hander Pernell London, surprisingly not named in the 30-man Demerara U-17 trials

Andre Stoll

squad, offered resistance with a solid 18 before he was run out and number 10 batsman Vickram Balkarran managed to become only the second East Bank batman to reach double figures with an undefeated 10.

Although the victory was emphatic, Georgetown again showed their inability to finish the job with the opposition on their knees and Balkarran and last man Corwin London (6) took the score from 50-9 to 69 as 21 extras, of which 12 were wides, contributed to the East Bank cause.

Khemraj Singh (4) and Leron Edwards (1), who was brilliantly stumped by the highly talented Dexter Solomon off a leg-side wide, quickly followed the demise of their leading batsman Fazal as the tall Stoll went to work on a slow track.

Davindra Deosarran (3) then clipped a full toss from medium pacer Carlos La Rose to square-leg at 39-4 and when London was run out in the 16th over at 43-5, the visitors were wobbling on the ropes as the pre-tournament favourites tightened the screws on the loop-sided contest.

National under-15 player Jagdesh Bishun (2) was caught behind off Devers at 46-6 before East bank slumped to 50-9 in Devers’ next over as the off-spinner, who again demonstrated his ability to turn the ball a long way, teamed up with his Skipper Solomon to strike three telling blows in four balls.

Dayanand Roopnarine

Jason Henry (0) was brilliantly stumped down the leg-side, Asif Ishak (0) was leg before and Inshan Fazir (4) was neatly stumped as Solomon effected his ninth dismissal in the competition as Devers became the tournament’s leading wicket taker with eight scalps from three matches.

Georgetown again exhibited excellent team cricket with West Indies under-15 leg-spinner Amir Khan (6-3-4-0) keeping the pressure at one end as he operated in tandem with Devers.

The last wicket pair prospered until lively pacer Seon Daniels (1-24 from 4.4 overs) grabbed his seventh wicket in the competition by trapping London leg before to end the innings.

Ovid pugnaciously pulled the first ball of the Georgetown innings for three but Henry responded by bowling Kamal Ramkissoon (0) for a first ball duck with a ball which crept along the ground.

The elegant Roopnarine joined Ovid to put their team back on course for victory before Ovid was leg before to spinner Deosarran, while Bishun (2-14) got rid of Rajiv Singh and Delon Fernandes for ducks in the space of six runs.

However, by then the writing was already on the wall of the East Bank lads, as Solomon, the only batsman to register a fifty in the competition, supported Roopnarine with 10 not out to formalise the win.

The Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) presented bats to Solomon (best batsman) and Devers (best bowler) while GCA President Bish Panday presented the champions with $60,000 on his own behalf.

Speaking at the presentation, DCB Vice-President Anand Sanasie told the gathering that not many people pay much attention to under-17 cricket and thanked the sponsors for coming forward.

“We (DCB) realise the importance of this level of cricket which bridges the gap between under-15 and under-19 and we hope that Gizmos & Gadgets, who willing came forward on short notice, continue to support this competition which was not sponsored last year,” Sanasie said. Despite a few glitches, the competition was fairly well run.

Manager of Gizmos & Gadgets Nayatanand Manbodh said his company was happy to sponsor the competition since it was another way of them giving back to the community and pledged support of next year’s tournament.

Champions Georgetown, runner-up East Bank and Man-of-the-match Devers received trophies from the sponsors.