Essequibo Down Sunrise

By Morris Seecharan
Essequibo winning the toss with no hesitation elects to bat last Sunday at Seaview Park in Brooklyn. Opening with the hot bat of Cedric Beaton paired up with Jamal Holder kicked of Essequibo batting with stride. The veteran Cedric gets off the mark hitting Kalif Salim for 4 setting the tone as to what to come. Holder also gets off the mark hitting a 4 and this pair looked like double trouble for Sunrise bowlers. However after the first two over Sunrise bowlers would settle down and bowled economical.

This does not stop the veteran Cedric batting with experience to start a running game keeping Essequibo score ticking. In the 5th over Kalif took a flamboyant one hand up in the air straight back catch in his 3rd over picking up the wicket of Jamal with the score at 22. J. Blackman joined Cedric and both effectively continued running in between wickets picking up singles, and strategically putting the pressure on Sunrise fielders turning singles into doubles. The artful batsman Cedric would hit timely boundaries and lead Blackman in laying a solid opening foundation for Essequibo. As much as Sunrise bowlers were stubborn in keeping down the run rate Cedric and Blackwell batted flawlessly to the 13th over half bringing the score to 66 for 1.

Going back in after the break Sunrise was faced with the Essequibo team having the luxury of 9 wickets on hand to pound away at their bowlers. However, Sunrise bowlers were up for the task, and boundaries were hard to come. Cedric who has always carried Essequibo with the few matches played between these two teams kept up with the running game instrumentally kept his team score competitive.

After a key partnership of 58 runs J. Blackwell was caught in the 16th overs off the bowling of Bobby Jaimangal with the score at 80 for 2. Harold Deokinanan in the 17th overs would clean bowled C. Johnson in his 1st delivery of his of his spell and it looks like Sunrise will have a break. Wesley Blackman the next batman came in and joined Cedric who was unstoppable. Cedric and Wesley settled down building a partnership. However, Harold in the 19th over would struck again picked up the price wicket of Cedric caught for 48 and the score 107 for 4. Cedric batted commandingly showcased an icon batsman and in his total was 4 fours, and 1 six. Dwane Nedd who joined Wesley was a speedster. He sprinted in betweens wickets accelerating Essequibo score. Harold in the 23rd overs would knock the stumps down of Wesley who made 17 and Deryck Basdeo bowled Dwane for 17 in 24th over. Essequibo in their second half they picked up 89 important runs and position themselves firmly at 155 for 6.

Harold Deokinanan leads the bowling and was the most penetrating bowlers for Sunrise went for 5-0-31-3. Other mentionable bowlers were Bobby Jaimangal 5-0-25-1; Deryck Basdeo 5-1-29-1, and Kalif Salim 5-0-29-1.

Sunrise opening pair Roopnarine Dayal and Masood Salim in reply showed that they meant business. The first delivery form R. Britton Dayal hammered away to square leg for four, and Masood showed no mercy on Essequibo as he hit a few boundaries of his own to keep up with the required run rate. For the Sunrise members watching it was a relief to see their opening pair solid response. In the 6th over Masood was caught at deep log off for 16 off the bowling of Linden Sinclair with the score at 36. Deryck Basdeo, Sunrise captain joined Dayal, who was batting with ease cracking brilliant off strokes. Dayal played an important opening role took the score to 73 made 21 and was the 2nd wicket to fall. Sunrise would then lose 2 quick wickets and at the 13 overs half was 80 for 4. It was a comfortable zone for Sunrise as they seem happy with their performance thus far.

In the second half Deryck was joined by Selwyn Cheong who cracked a four and six to get off the mark. This quiet the Essequibians as they fear Cheong will slug Sunrise to victory. In the 18th overs Deryck who was on 22 was bowled by Cedric Beaton with the score at 112. Immediately right after Cheong who was on 16 was run out in the same over trying to turn a single into a double making the score 113 for 6. With 8 overs to go and 43 runs need to for victory Sunrise seems assured that victory was in sight. Most notably the bottom order batsmen for Sunrise earned their current 2 wins. However, cricket being the usual game it is showed in this game that stats sometime are just for paper. What we witness was Sunrise bottom order would collapse between catches and run out practically trying do too much too fast. They were able to make only 18 runs with last 4 outs and in 21.3 overs Sunrise was down and all out for 131.

It was very disheartened loss for the Sunrise team, and one again Cedric Beaton continue to be a Sunrise killer making sure that Sunrise stayed in the loss column against Essequibo.

Linder Sinclair was the master bowler for Essequibo leading with 3.3-0-17-3, followed by Carols Johnson 4-0-17-2, Cedric Beaton 4-1-20-2, and Emmanuel Martin 5-0-42-1.