Demerara poised for first innings honours

Spinners Amir Khan and Zaheer Mohamed shared nine wickets between them, while Christopher Barnwell hit a typically robust unbeaten 48 to put host Demerara in a comfortable position to take first innings points from Essequibo when the second day’s play of their opening round game of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) organized Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T)\Hand-in-Hand senior 4-day inter county tournament ended yesterday.

Khan bagged 5-64 from 29.4 overs, while Mohamed captured 4-46 from 18 overs as Essequibo were bowled out for 198 just after lunch in 73.4 overs at the Enmore Community Centre ground.
At stumps, Demerara are 27 runs away from first innings points as they finished on 172-4 after facing 46 overs with Christopher Barnwell unbeaten on 48 and Chris Patadin yet to score.

Earlier, Essequibo resumed on their overnight score of 101-3 with Dillon Heyliger on 16 and Kemo Paul on 07, the pair added a further 21 runs for the fourth wicket before Heyliger was trapped in front by leg spinner Amir Khan for 27 (4×4).

Paul then played back to one that kept low from pacer Trevon Garraway and was bowled for 19 (1×4) as Essequibo slipped to 132-5. Rovindra Parsram and Parmesh Parsotam batted sensibly to add 35 for the sixth wicket, but off spinner Zaheer Mohamed ended their resistance when he had Parsram caught for 28 (1×4,1×6).
The rest of the batting folded meekly; Khan accounted for Rajiv Balgobin (01) while Mohamed dismissed skipper Anthony Adams (00) and Mark Tyrell (00) in quick succession before Khan who bowled with good control and variation ended Essequibo innings by uprooting the stumps Hemchand Persaud (02) leaving Parsotam not out on 39 (1×4); Garraway took 1-30.

Demerara lost an early wicket in reply, when Trevon Griffith was caught off medium pacer Heyliger for 11 (1×4) with the score 17. Rajendra Chandrika and Leon Johnson steadied the innings with a second wicket stand of 50 before Chandrika was trapped in front to Adams for 22 (2×4).

Ramnaresh Sarwan joined Johnson and carried the score to 81 with Johnson hitting five sweetly timed boundaries before he was undone courtesy of a brilliant running catch by Paul off Hemchand Persaud at mid on for 40. Sarwan and Barnwell then frustrated the Essequibians with a fourth stand of 89 with levelheaded batting on a slow pitch.