Sunday September 21, 2014
Kaieteur News
Page 73
GCB Inter County Cricket
Griffith’s maiden unbeaten ton puts Demerara in impregnable position against Berbice By Sean Devers Defending Champions Demerara put themselves in an impregnable position by the end of the penultimate day of the senior InterCounty four-day match against Berbice at Bourda yesterday. Chris Barnwell (36) and 23-year-old Trevon Griffith added 62 for the third wicket after Rajendra Chandrika (13) had retired hurt at 45-2 to take Demerara to 186-5 before the declaration came when Griffith reached an unbeaten 102. His maiden century at this level came from 351 minutes, 149 balls with nine fours. Berbice set 411 to win from 30 minutes yesterday and the entire final day today, finished the day on 33-2 with Kandasammy Surujnarine on four and night watchman Keon Joseph on eight, still needing 378 runs for an unlikely victory. Berbice resumed on 130
- 5, still 312 runs away from Demerara’s 442-6 declared and although Wicketkeeper Anthony Bramble and Skipper Narsingh Deonarine staged a mini recovery by adding 58 for the sixth w i c k e t b e f o r e Wi n t z removed Bramble for 62 at 188-6 and when Deonarine (30) departed 11 runs later, also off Wintz, Demerara were in firm control with Berbice wobbling on the ropes at 199-7. Zaheer Mohamed then picked up the next two wickets including Veerasammy Permaul (15) before Wintz (4-54) cleaned up the tail by scattering the stumps of last man Raun Johnson (6) to wrap up the innings at 11:00hrs. Mohamed (2-29) and Barnwell (2-65) provided s u p p o r t t o Wi n t z f o r Demerara, who surprisingly decided not to enforce the follow-on although their bowlers were all fresh and Berbice were trailing by 224
runs. By Lunch the host had already lost Robin Bacchus (3) well taken low down at deep backward square by Devon Clements as he swept at Deonarine, who opened the bowling with Royston Crandon, off the last ball before Lunch at 8-1. After the interval Shemroy Barrington (1) edged a ball, which did not spin, to the Keeper as Demerara slipped to 10-2, while first innings double centurion, Chandrika, used to his feet to Deonarine first ball to get off the mark. Griffith cut Deonarine for four and along with Chandrika took the score to 45 in hazy sunshine on a track still good for batting with some attractive strokeplay on the fast outfield before Chandrika retired hurt on 13. The left-handed Griffith, who has one 50 from five First-Class matches, hammered Deonarine to
Lewis Hamilton takes dramatic Singapore pole over Nico Rosberg BBC Sport - Lewis Hamilton took pole position from team-mate and title rival Nico Rosberg by a tiny fraction in a thrilling qualifying session in Singapore. Hamilton was just 0.007 seconds quicker than Rosberg as Mercedes faced a threat from rivals Red Bull and Ferrari. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo set the standard on the final run in the top 10 shoot-out but was pipped by 0.173secs. Ricciardo was third from team-mate Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. “Damn it,” Rosberg said over the radio, when he realised he had been beaten by the narrowest of margins in probably the closest qualifying session of the year. The German leads Hamilton by 22 points in the championship and a victory by either in the Singapore Grand Prix today would be a significant blow in their intense battle for the title. But they will not have the race their own way, judging
by the closeness of the opposition. Hamilton and Rosberg were only sixth and seventh fastest after the first runs in final qualifying, beaten by b o t h Wi l l i a m s c a r s , Ricciardo and both Ferraris. Kimi Raikkonen, only 0.023secs slower than teammate Alonso on the first runs, was taken out of the fight early when his engine hit trouble on his preparation lap for the final shoot-out. The last few seconds were thrilling as Ricciardo set the pace with a lap of one minute 45.854 seconds, only to be beaten by Rosberg before Hamilton leapfrogged them both. Vettel then leapt ahead of Alonso into fourth, knocking the Spaniard down to fifth even though the Ferrari driver had improved by more than 0.2secs over his first run. That, though, was enough to beat Massa by 0.093secs. It was breathless stuff. “Quite an exciting qualifying session,”
Hamilton said. “I guess noone was expecting to see how close everyone was. I saw the Ferraris very close and for it to end up as it did is great for our team. “The last lap I locked up into turn one and lost quite a bit of time but managed to pull it back. I lost 0.15-0.2secs but I kept going and it got better and better on that lap. It ended up very close.” Rosberg said: “Seven thousandths, you know, it’s nothing. I look back at the lap and I could have done it. But Lewis did a good job to get pole. Fair play.” Behind Massa, Raikkonen had to settle for seventh on probably his most competitive showing of a disappointing season, ahead of Williams’s Valtteri Bottas, McLaren’s Kevin M a g n u s s e n a n d To r o Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat. M a g n u s s e n ’ s performance was especially impressive - he is the only driver who has never raced on this track before and he beat team-mate Jenson Button into 11th place.
long-on for four, while Barnwell rocked onto the back foot and smashed Deonarine for four and swept him for another boundary in the same over as the DCC pair gained momentum the longer they batted. Johnson was introduced into the attack and Barnwell, with four First-Class fifties, clipped the pacer neatly off his pads for four with effortless ease before Griffith majestically caressed Johnson to the point boundary. Griffith tucked Johnson off his hips for a double to reach his 50 from 70 balls with five fours as the lead progressed to 320 and the partnership to 50. Barnwell swept Steven Latcha for four even as
Permaul persisted with his leg-stump line attack and when Latcha removed Barnwell for 36 to break the 62-run partnership, the score was 107-3 at Tea and the lead 331. After the break, Griffith pulled Clements for four and swept him to the square-leg boundary to move into the 80s, while Vishaul Singh, who scored his fourth InterCounty ton in the first innings, played the supporting role before he cut a ball to close to him and was caught behind for 17 at 1544 to break the 47 run partnership. Mohamed dapped a quicker delivery from Crandon past Permaul at slip for four before Griffith give himself room and found the
gap between cover and point with immaculate precision as the ball raced to the boundary like a bullet. Mohamed (10) was removed by Crandon at 1755 before Griffith reached his ton and the declaration was made with Chandrika, who resumed his innings, not out on 15. When Berbice began their second innings with 10 overs to bat in the day, Wintz operated with five slips and a gully to the openers and Jason Sinclair (4) was soon run out at 15-1 and Clements (7) was bowled by Barnwell before the close yesterday. Today if it rains or Berbice manages to bat out the day the home team could regret not enforcing the follow-on.