RHT Pepsi U-19s crush Young Warriors by 9 wickets

A brilliant century from national Under-17 cricketer Kevin Sinclair and an outstanding all-round performance from another junior national player, Junior Sinclair, have powered Rose Hall Town (RHT) Pepsi Under-19 team into the final of Berbice Cricket Board’s New York Business Group Under-19 cricket tournament.

Kevin Sinclair blasted an unbeaten 116, while Junior Sinclair took five wickets and return with the bat to score 63 as RHT Pepsi defeated a shell-shocked Young Warriors by nine wickets at the Albion ground in the second semi-final of the tournament.

Albion had earlier in the week defeated Blairmont to advance to the final, which would be played on Friday and Saturday at the Albion ground.

Young Warriors won the toss in blazing sunshine and elected to take first strike. Openers Alex Algoo and Ricardo Ramdehol added ten runs before Ramdehol was caught behind by Revoldo Williams off pacer Sylus Tyndall for nought in the third over.

Jaron France (1) and Kristoff Bahadur (0) both fell early to leave their team in early trouble at 30-3 in the sixth over. However, national junior player Algoo stroked an attractive 73 with nine boundaries, while an aggressive Sase Sukhoo blasted 71 runs with six boundaries and three massive sixes to revive their team.

Trevon Stamslans clipped in with 21 as Young Warriors reached 196 all out from 46 of the allotted 50 overs in their first innings. Bowling for RHT Pepsi, Junior Sinclair claimed 5-33, while he received support from Sylus Tyndall 2-40 and Kevlon Anderson 2-30.

In response, the RHT Pepsi openers Kevin and Junior Sinclair took the visitors bowling apart in adding 163 for the first wicket off just 29 overs before Junior Sinclair was caught off A. Ramsammy for a composed 63 with five boundaries.

National player Kevlon Anderson joined Kevin Sinclair and they took their team to victory by adding an unbeaten 38 for the second wicket. Sinclair was unbeaten on a classy 116 off 96 balls with 15 boundaries. A. Ramsammy was the only successful bowler for Young Warriors with 1-51.

The final between Albion and RHT Pepsi promises to be an exciting event with two evenly matched teams. Albion would depend heavily on home advantage on a pitch tailored made for spin bowling.

The home teams’ effort would be spearheaded by Adrian Sukwah, Joshua Harrichan, Kelvin Umroa, Ritesh Umroa, Matthew Haridyal, Josiah Dhanai, Stephen Kelimudeen and Karan Arpaul.

RHT Pepsi would be spearheaded by Bhaskar Yadram, Kevin Sinclair, Kevlon Anderson, Brandon Prashad, Junior Sinclair, Brandon Corlette, Keith Simpson, Sylus Tyndall, Revoldo Williams, Surendra Budhoo, David Prahalad, Simon Naidu and Joel Pike.

Umpires for the final, which bowls off at 10:00h on both days, are Zaheer Moakan, Imran Moakan and Joseph Simon. The winning team would take home $100,000 and a trophy, while the runner-up would receive $50,000 along with a runner-up trophy.

The Man-of-the-Final, along with the best bowler would each receive $10,000 and trophies. Each team in the final would also receive t-shirts from the New York Business Group.

The tournament is being organised by the Berbice Cricket Board with sponsorship obtained by the Albion Cricket Club from a group of Guyanese businessmen residing in the New York area.

Photo caption: Kevin Sinclair (left) and Junior Sinclair