Guyana hold off HPC

KINGSTON – Guyana madea winning start to theWICB Regional One-Day Championship yesterday, after they held their nerve to beat the High Performance Centre (HPC) XI by three runsin a thrilling last-over finish.
Restricted to a hardly-imposing 225 all out off their 50 overs after being sent in, Guyana used their experience to hold their young opponents to 222 for nine from their allotted overs.
Captain Ramnaresh Sarwan stroked a top score of 63 and Richard Ramdeen got 46, while leg-spinner Keron Cottoy snatched four for 47.
HPC got a great start as the left-handed Kieran Powell cracked 72 from 124 balls with two fours and a six and Rajendra Chandrika, 51, but they lost momentum late in the innings and failed to pull off the upset which seemed inevitable at one point.
Powell and Chandrika, who faced 86 balls and hit a single four, had added 101 for the first wicket to give Guyana a real scare.
Nkrumah Bonner made a pivotal 38 off 31 balls after the innings fell away but he was out, trying to get the ten runs required in the last over, sent down by off-spinner Steven Jacobs.
Earlier, a 101-run second-wicket stand between Sarwan and Ramdeen laid the platform for Guyana’s total in the Group ‘B’ fixture at Kensington Park.
Sarwan stroked four fours and four sixes off 79 balls while Ramdeen faced 58 balls and hammered four fours and two sixes. (CMC)