Hand-in-Hand U-19 Inter-County 50-over final.. Berbice face National U-17s at Providence today

May 04, 2018 Sports

Junior Sinclair has the only fifty in the tournament.

Kelvon Anderson is Bserbice’ best batsman and the only bowler with a 5-wicket haul in the competition

Berbice face off with last year’s finalists the National Under -17s at National Stadium, Providence today in the twice postponed final of the Third annual Hand-in-Hand 50-over U-19 Inter-County cricket tournament.
The regulations gives Berbice the title but President of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) Hilbert Foster said although he was disappointed that the Berbice Board was not consulted or even informed of the decision to replay the Final today, in the interest of cricket no protest would be lodged by the BCB.
The regulations indicate that if the final was twice washed out, the winner would be the team with the most wins. Berbice, who dethroned Demerara to lift their first three-day title since 2015, finished on 26.9 points; winning all three of their games while the U-17s, using this tournament as preparation for the Regional U-17 tournament scheduled for Trinidad in July, ended second with 10.5 points made up of one win and two washed out matches.
Defending champions Demerara finished on 4.4 points while Essequibo, with one defeat and two washed out games, finished in the cellar on 2.1 points.
”After meeting, the BCB have decided that in the interest of cricket, no protest will be lodged in this matter. We want the U-17 team to have as much preparation as possible before the Regional tournament is played. In addition this would give the selectors a last chance of seeing the players before picking the under-19 team,” Foster informed.
He noted that he was mindful of the sponsors need for mileage but stressed that the BCB’s decision not to protest is in no way condoning the ignoring of the BCB on such an important issue and lamented that neither the Manager nor Coach were provided copies of the playing conditions.
”I am confident that we will win tomorrow (today) that’s what Champions do ….win every game to show everyone we deserve to be Champions,” Foster said.

West Indies U-16 Skipper, Sachin Singh.

This is the second consecutive year the U-17s has upstaged their older counterparts after losing to Demerara in last year’s final. Berbice qualified for today’s final on account of a 9-wicket win over the U-17s; crushed a dysfunctional Demerara unit by 118 runs and registered a five-wicket win over Essequibo in the last round at Tuschen. The U-17s got past Essequibo by 71 runs at Everest in their only game.
Today the GCB and all involved will hope for no rain on the East Bank of Demerara for the grand finale of a tournament which is being used to select the National team for this year’s Regional U-19 competition, set for Barbados in July.
This tournament has been marred by the adverse weather, slow pitches, sluggish grounds and poor shot selections and Berbice will depend on their openers Alex Algoo and Junior Sinclair who have given their team solid foundations without going on to big scores.
With Javid Karim, Kevin Sinclair and Kelvon Anderson in their side, Berbice have a strong batting line-up but Algoo and the Sinclair cousins in particular, will need to control the temptation to play aggressive shots off every ball.
Left-arm spinners Keith Simpson and Kelvin Umroa along with off-spinner Kevin Sinclair have utilised spin-friendly tracks and are expected to trouble the batsmen again today on another track which should be low and slow. Left-arm pacer Karim Javid and Anderson should share the new ball.
Anderson, who made 38 in last year’s final for the U-17s, is Berbice’ most complete batsman and the only bowler with a five-wicket haul in the 50-over format. The U-17s batting will depend heavily on West Indies U-16 Captain Sachin Singh, Navindra Persaud, Narvan Persaud, Nigel Deodat, Movindra Dindyal, Seon Glasgow and Andre Seepersaud. Their bowling should be taken care of by Silvan Williams, Sheldon Charles and Deodat. (Sean Devers)

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