Opener Vishwanauth Lall continued his excellent form with another timely match winning innings for Essequibo Masters who defeated West Bank Warriors by 18 runs to take the inaugural Big Man Cricket Over-40 title on Sunday October 22 at Everest in Georgetown.
On the big and dry outfield, West Bank Warriors asked the men from the Cinderella county to bat first in the blazing sun. Lall and fellow opener, Fazeer Khan put on 113 for the first wicket in under 11 overs to set up a formidable total of 232 for 5 from their allotment of 25 overs. The construction worker, who stroked consecutive centuries in the quarter final and semi final matches was on course for three figures again but fell for 83 from 44 balls with 6 fours and 7 sixes while Khan who was more sedate hit 5 fours from 31 balls in his innings of 32. The rest of the batting capitalized on the feather bed and tired looking West Bank Warriors with Ravi Beharry 25, Ramesh Narine 24, Navishaul Pooran 22 and Dharmendra Lakhan 21 not out getting among the runs.
Off-spinner Ganesh Persaud was the pick of the bowlers with 2/29 while there was one wicket a-piece for captain Seecharran Persaud (1/28), Seenarine Matura (1/37) and Anthony Ifill (1/48).
In reply, openers Ramesh Thakur and Deoram Persaud began in blazing fashion to put on 110 from 11 overs to put the run chase on course for the West Bank Warriors. However, there was a middle order collapse that the Warriors never recovered from. They were 143 for 1 and 166 for 2 but stumbled to 175 for 5 after 20 overs losing three wickets for 9 runs. At that stage 58 runs were needed from the last five overs and the title was slipping away from the Warriors.
The collapse was engineered by left-arm spinner Beesham Seepersaud (2/31) and leg-spinner Ramesh Narine (1/26) while Dharmendra Lakhan (2/42) and Lall (1/24) were also in the wickets column.
Thakur top scored with 86 (69b; 8×4; 2×6) while Deoram Persaud smashed 45 (29b; 1×4; 5×6) and Shazam Ramjohn 21 (15b; 2×4; 1×6) but eventually ended on 214 for 6 to be 18 runs short of the target to give Essequibo Masters a hard fought title.
Lall collected the Player of the Match award for his brilliant batting and economical bowling while the champions collected a trophy and $250,000 and the runner-up also got a trophy and $150,000.
Fourteen teams started the tournament which began in March 2023.