Last Saturday, June 13th at the beautiful Franklin Field in Boston, undefeated Guyana Cricket Club took on arguably the best team in MSCL with six Division 1 titles under their belt. It was a beautiful day for cricket with the sun shining in all its glory, however, the outfield was heavy due to the recent rainfall.
Bareston Reid struck a superb 118 not out.
Bareston Reid registered a magnificent century in his debut for Guyana CC striking 7x4s and 7x6s and carrying his bat for an undefeated 118, while Sharaz Baksh struck an entertaining 94 that included 6x4s and 5x6s.
Guyana’s captain Sharaz Baksh won the toss and elected to take first strike with Bareston Reid and Parmanand Doodnauth (21), the pair was very watchful initially and found it difficult to score freely with the spin and pace combination of Abdul Wahab and Fazal Alam. Doodnauth held out at long-on in the 13th over that paved the way for a partnership of 174 between Bareston Reid and Sharaz Baksh for the second-wicket.
Both Reid and Baksh rotated the strike well, dispatching any loose balls to the boundary. Reid was happy to turn the strike over to Baksh who was more aggressive and fluent. At the end of the 20th over Guyana were 89 for 1, with Commonwealth A still having a firm grip on the game. Immediately after the water break Baksh tore into the Commonwealth A attack, hitting the first four balls from off spinner Sarath Chandra for a four and three consecutive sixes.
Skipper Sharaz Baksh missed out on a ton hitting 94.
Baksh never looked back and continued to plunder the bowling to all parts of the ground. He raced to his half-century off 34 balls. Reid playing the supportive role made sure his skipper got the lion’s share of the strike. Baksh eventually fell six short of what would have been a well deserved century. By then Reid was well set and ready to launch an unforgiving assault on the Commonwealth A bowlers.
Reid was especially severe on Commonwealth A’s premier fast bowler Fazal Alam, hitting him for four towering sixes in one over. His scintillating array of shots thrilled the spectators as the fielders helplessly retrieved the ball from beyond the boundaries. Reid who batted through the entire 40 overs, and faced 126 balls finished with 118 not out, with his former Jamaica Defense Force teammate Lenroy Bruce on 5 not out. Guyana CC scored a commanding 270 for 4 from their allotted 40 overs.
In reply Commonwealth A were bundled out for 143 with the only significant contributions coming from Anthony Brown and Donohue Clarke 37 and 33 respectively. The chief destroyers were Lakhram Sanichar with 4 for 29 off 8 overs and Lenroy Bruce 3 for 23 off 8 overs.