Samaroo pilots Logie to thrilling BG win

BRILLIANT all-round performance by skipper Varoon Samaroo (42 and 10-3-19-3) inspired Logie Division to a thrilling one-wicket victory over defending champions Nanan Division yesterday. This was the feature match in the second round of the British Gas Under-15 cricket competition  at the PowerGen Sports Club Ground, Syne Village. In the other second round fixture at the National Cricket Centre Ground, Balmain, solid all-round performances by McEven Moffet and Yannick Cariah sparked Gomes Division (North-East) to a convincing six-wicket victory over Dhanraj Division (South-East).

But the excitement and tension held centre stage at Penal where Shivan Narine (11 not out) and pint-sized Stephen Katwaroo (1) rallied together for over four overs and carried Logie’s team to within two runs for victory before Katwaroo was dismissed by Darrel Mannick for his precious solitary run. Narine then clipped the ball off the pads and himself and last man Vicky Ouditt raced for the winning runs to give three-time champions Logie a sensational win with 2.1 overs to spare. Scores: Nanan Division 126 for 9 off 50 overs. Logie Division 127 for 9 off 47.5 overs. Nanan Division batted first and reached their overall through the efforts of captain Adrian Barath who topscored with 29. Nashwan Lutchman 13, Kadir Shah 13, Roland Ramkissoon 11 and Ameer Ali 19 were the other contributors.

Leg spinner Samaroo posed too much problems for his opponents and captured three wickets for 19 runs from his allotted ten overs. The other wicket-takers were Shivan Narine who claimed two for 21, Kareem Jumadeen two for 18 and Terrence Ramsaroop two for 13 runs. In reply, Samaroo and Akeen Mohammed featured in a match-winning first wicket partnership worth 56 before Mohammed departed for 19. Samaroo batted sensibly and was the fourth wicket to be dismissed at 92. He made an enterprising 42 with two fours. Logie lost wickets regularly and seemed doomed to another defeat before Katwaroo showed the grit and tenacity alongside Narine who kept his nerves to rally his team to the victory which should provide them enough impetus to win their other two matches.

It was Gomes first win for the 2005 season. And it was sweet success for the Easterners who were beaten by seven wickets by defending champion Nanan Division (Central) last Wednesday. Moffet won the toss and asked Dhanraj’s team to take first strike. The move proved to be a good one as they bowled out the South-Easterners for 91 off 47.5 overs. Mr Extras become Dhanraj Division’s topscorer with an overall tally of 49, more than fifty percent of the team’s final total. Extras were made up of 29 wides, seven no-balls, two byes and four leg-byes. Only Isaac Nicholas (14), Evan Lewis (12) and Vinod Siew (10) reached double figures. Right arm leg spinner Cariah was the chief wrecker with three wickets for 13 runs from ten overs while skipper Moffet claimed two wickets for 18 runs from 9.5 overs. Offspinner Alex Aguillera was also economical with figures of 10-2-16-2.