Inter-County cricket...Demerara go down to Berbice at Blairmont

Inter-County cricket…Demerara go down to Berbice at Blairmont

Sep 28, 2008 Sports

For the crickets pundits who watched defending champions Demerara’s ordinary performance in their win against traditional whipping boys Essequibo in Friday’s opening El Dorado inter-county 50-overs cricket match at Everest, their loss to Berbice yesterday at Blairmont was no big surprise.

Urged on by a large and raucous crowd after they elected to bat on a low track on heavy outfield, Demerara lost first match hero Rajendra Chandrika (10) to Paul Wintz at 43-1 in the 13th over and eventually reached 177-9 when their 50 overs expired as Chris Barnwell entertained the fans with an array of pugnacious shots in his 57.

Skipper and Test player Narsingh Deonarine who captured 3-34 from 10 overs of off-spin, retuned to stroke 46 while first-class left-hander Assad Fudadin hammered an unbeaten 56 and Royston Crandon weighted in with 43 as the host reached 179-3 off 42 overs.

Christopher Barnwell

Assad Fudadin

Narsingh Deonarine

Skipper Leon Johnson again failed to convert a 40 into a substantial score and followed up his first match 41 with 46 before he was removed by Deonarine.

Zaheer Mohamed with 23 and Steven Jacobs with 16 were the only other Demerara batsmen to get into double figures as Jacobs, Krishna Deosarran (3) and Sauid Drepaul (5) were all run out in a disappointing Demerara batting display.

Former West Indies leg-spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo retuned to inter-county cricket with the wicket of national player Deon Ferrier (3) and conceded 29 runs from his nine overs.

2008 Guyana under-19 all-rounder Kellon Carmichael struck early when Berbice began their reply by having West Indies opener Sewnarine Chattergoon (9) caught behind at 22-1 but Crandon and Fudadin joined forces to take the score to 85 before Crandon lofted Drepaul to long-off.

Deonarine and Fudadin then carried the score to 157 before Deonarine was stumped off Mohamed but by then the writing was already on the wall for the visitors.

Berbice clash with Essequibo from 09:30hrs today in the final preliminary round game at Wales before the historic final under flood lights is contested on Friday from 14:30hrs at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence.