Anthony Ifill’s century powers West Bank Warriors to semi finals of the Peter Lewis Asphalt Sales & Construction Services Big Man Cricket2

Oct 17, 2023 Sports

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– Regal, Everest Masters, Essequibo Masters also march into the semis

Kaieteur Sports – Match 1- Regal vs Jai Hind Jaguars at Enmore – In a match reduced to 20 overs, Regal took first strike and made a challenging 174 for 8 on a placid batting track. Andrew Lyght, Patrick Rooplall and K. Fraser contributed 35, 35 & 36 respectively. Outram with 2 for 21 was the pick of the bowlers for the Berbice side whilst Z. Khan had 2 for 41.

Jai Hind Jaguars started very collectively until they lost their openers at 39 for 2, Imran Khan & S. Mangali in quick succession. However, there was somewhat of a recovery between Imran Hussain 32 and R. Sumair 29 that took the score to 104 until the 3^rd wicket fell that precipitated the demise of the lads from the Ancient County with wickets falling at regular intervals to eventually fold their innings for 147. Patrick Rooplall crowned a good all-round performance grabbing 3 wickets to be named the man of the match.

Match 2- GT Royals vs Everest at Enmore – Everest Masters won the toss and chose to take first strike on a very even surface at the beautiful Enmore ground rattling up a very formidable 233 for 7 off their 25 overs. Basil Persaud opened the batting top scoring with 77 well-played runs (7 @ 4s and 2 @ 6s). Former West Indies batsman, Ryan Ramdass looked good for a polished 21 but Imtiaz Sadik with a half century assisted Basil to lay a good foundation for the eventual total of Everest. V. Armstrong also contributed a cameo of 33*. Richard Latif and Troy Benn took 2 wickets apiece for 41 and 45 respectively.

GT Royals who played the match with only 9 players had their power openers, Richard Latif and Troy Benn, racing along at around 10 runs per over for the first half of the match until Benn was ‘mankad’d’ to break the rhythm of the GT side. Everest did not seem to have an answer for the rampaging openers and this dismissal sparked a change in the GT Royals’ innings as they could not have sustained that run rate. They lost 2 other wickets at 153 including Latif for a magnificent 88 and were delicately poised at 164 for 3 at the 19^th over mark (GT Royals were effectively 164 for 5 since they started with 2 wickets down).

Their obvious strategy from the inception was to race to a healthy run rate and once ahead in the latter stages begin to constantly appeal for bad light since they figured they were marginally ahead of the DLS at that stage. The umpires, however, decided that a few more overs were still possible, but the GT Royals batters in the middle declined to bat claiming the visibility was poor and may have been guilty of plotting their own demise. It should be noted that only the umpires have the final verdict on the bad light decision. One of the batters could be seen sitting on the pitch at the non-striker’s end. The match was eventually awarded to Everest Masters after an investigation by the Tournament Referee, Grantley Culbard, who ruled that GT Royals had basically forfeited the match.

Match 3- Essequibo Masters vs Legend Rangers at Canal #2 – Essequibo Masters cantered to an easy victory against the other Berbice team. Taking first strike, Legend Rangers could only muster 140 runs off their allotted overs. They had useful contributions from Lakeram Latchman 28, R. Pillay 21 and Rahamatally 21. Trevis Simon picked up 3 wickets for Essequibo.

The guys from Cinderella County knocked off the target in 13.2 overs losing just a solitary wicket of opener, V. Lall for an even 100. F. khan was undefeated on 31.

Match 4- Enterprise Star Sports vs West Bank Warriors at Enterprise – West Bank Warriors took first strike and posted a very challenging 250 for 4 off their 25 overs. After the openers fell at 16 in the 4^th over, Shazam Ramjohn and Anthony Ifill came together for a massive 3^rd wicket partnership of 169 runs. Ramjohn contributed 81 off 46 balls and his innings was punctuated by 3 @ 6s and 7 @ 4s but the feature of their partnership was the running between the wickets which took the steam out of the East Coast lads.  Anthony Ifill finished unbeaten on 112 with 7 @ 6s and 9 @ 4s to ensure he was there at the end. Chabiraj Rambarran made a cameo 29 off 18 balls.

The huge total proved too much for Enterprise who never really challenged the defending champions and eventually folded for 170 Their openers gave them a solid 51 runs opening partnership but only captain Parmanand Dindyal with 57 and Rohan Mangal 30 gave them any trace of chasing the target. Anthony Ifill came back with the ball to grab 4 for 18 to easily seal the man of the match performance.

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• Big Man Cricket2, Essequibo Masters, Everest Masters, Imran Khan & S. Mangali, Peter Lewis Asphalt Sales & Construction Services, Regal

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