In what was a perfect example of teamwork, Lusignan Sports Club excelled in all departments of the game to crush hosts Enterprise Busta Sports Club by 119 runs to lift the East Coast Cricket Board ( ECCB) President’s Cup second division, 40- over title for the second year running.
Scores in the match: Lusignan SC 243- 7 from 40 overs; Enterprise 124 all out from 37.1 overs.
Enterprise skipper Parmanand Dindyal called correctly at the toss and immediately inserted the visi tors to take first strike. His decision paid dividends as the Lusignan batsmen found the going tough on a pitch with some preparation moisture.
However, former national under- 19 batsman Krishna Deosaran was content on playing the waiting game during the first half of the innings, and towards the end he received valuable support from the veteran Narvan Singh, the experienced Vishnu Ramjeet, and the youthful Rajendra Naikbarran.
While the left- handed Deosaran anchored one end, the trio contributed three entertaining cameos, which took Enterprise Busta SC out of the game and handed Lusignan SC an eventual winning total.
Deosaran, who was later named man- of- the- match, topscored with a solid 80, which spanned 75 deliveries and included six sixes and a solitary boundary.
The right- handed Singh slammed four sixes and a boundary in a 21- ball 45; Ramjeet counted three sixes and a four in his 30 from 24 balls; and Naikbarran stroked two fours and a sixe in 24 from 13 deliveries.
Bowling for Enterprise Busta SC, medium- pacer Devindra Persaud picked up 2- 38, while off- spinners Chatterpaul Singh and Kamesh Yadram bagged 2- 38 and 2- 54 respectively.
Enterprise Busta SC, miss ing the services of their influen tial skipper Zaheer Mohamed due to commitments with the senior Demerara Inter- county team, never threatened to chase the target, and only captain Dindyal with 43 and Sultan Safdar with 30 got going.
Dindyal hit one boundary in his 74- ball innings, while fellow right- hander Safdar found the boundary four times during his 44- ball occupation at the crease.
Off- spinner Ramjeet re turned impressive figures of 4- 22 from 7.1 overs, while left- armer Singh picked up 3- 30 from his allotment of eight overs.
At the presentation ceremony, ECCB president Bissoondyal Singh, who sponsored the competition, congratulated Lusignan SC on the victory and wished Enterprise Busta SC better luck for the next tournament.
He mentioned that only 16 of the 44 teams affiliated to the ECCB participated in this year’s competition.
“ We chose the top 16 teams to participate this year, but next year it’s going to be different. We hope to have all 44 teams competing so instead of the regular Lusignan/ Enterprise final, we might end up with two other teams ( in the final),” Singh predicted.
He added the ECCB is also looking at having next year’s final being hosted un der lights. “ As long as I’m president of the board, this competition will continue.
Next year we hope to make it bigger and better. The aim of this competition is to have a mixture of senior and junior players playing together so that they ( the youngsters) can learn from the older folks in the team.” Skipper of Lusignan SC, Darshanand Persaud, and coach of Enterprise Busta SC, Latchman Yadram, thanked Singh for once again sponsoring the competition, and said they were looking forward to the 2011 edition.
Also gracing the presentation ceremony were ECCB executives Samaroo Jailall, Raymond Barton, and Natyanand Manbhode.
