Permaul, Surujnarine steer Albion to final

By GuyanaTimes

Defending champions Albion Community Centre have become the first team to reach the final of this year’s Carib Beer First Division T20 cricket competition in the Ancient County of Berbice.
They achieved the milestone for the second straight year after easily defeating D’Edward in the playoff encounter last Sunday and then benefitting from a bye, which sent them through.
In the match, which was played at Albion, D’Edward won the toss and elected to bat first. Romesh Boodram and former Berbice all-rounder Eon Abel did well to put on 25 for in four overs, but after that Guyana Under-19 off-spinner Balchand Baldeo and former West Indies left-arm spinner picked up two wickets each to leave them tottering at 42-4.
It soon became 42-5, a position from which did not improve much upon, and then struggled to 74-9 from the 20 overs with Boodram top scoring with 24. Bowling for Albion, Permaul took 3-14 from four overs, Baldeo 2-10 from four overs and Narsingh Deonarine 2-20, also from four overs.
Albion Community Centre, in their reply, was given a good start of 40 by openers, Guyana’s wicketkeeper/batsman Anthony Bramble and Berbice opening batsman Kandasammy Surujnarine, before Bramble fell to medium-pacer Navin Rampersaud for 21. Bramble now has 282 runs at an average of 70.5 in the competition.
Rampersaud picked up two more wickets; Deonarine for seven and former Guyana T20 batting sensation Jonathan Foo for five but by then it was too late as Albion coasted to 77-4 in 9.5 overs with Surujnarine steering them to victory with 38 not out.
The team to challenge Albion in the final for this year’s championship is expected to be known on Sunday with the staging of the semi-final between Young Warriors and Universal Solutions Bermine at Port Mourant.