… Jamaica look to rebound
DEFENDING champions Trinidad & Tobago will seek to clinch their spot in the semi-finals when the second round of the WICB President’s Cup bowls off today.

They will fancy their chances of winning their second successive match when they face the Windward Islands at Uitvlugt, on the West Coast Demerara.

T&T managed to shrug off the fatigue of arriving in Guyana less than 10 hours before the start of their opening match to score an emphatic 90-run win, as they efficiently defended the moderate 201 for nine against Jamaica.

While Jamaica were without key players skipper Chris Gayle, Shawn Findlay and Jerome Taylor due to illness, their 111 for nine was disappointing even though the conditions at the Providence stadium were tailor-made for the T&T bowling attack.

The Uitvlugt pitch should provide prodigious turn for T&T’s spin trio of Dave Mohammed, Sherwin Ganga and Samuel Badree and the Windwards will find scoring difficult against them.

Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard should also relish the sluggish Uitvlugt track.

T&T’s batsmen, who shone in the recent Twenty20 Champions League in India, will be hard to keep under wraps and Adrian Barath, Lendl Simmons, brothers Dwayne and Darren Bravo, along with Kieron Pollard will also fancy their chances to get among the runs.

The Windwards bowlers should also relish the conditions with spinners Rawl Lewis, Liam Sebastien and Shane Shillingford likely to get help from the conditions.

Windwards lost by a run to Combined Campuses and Colleges in their first match but will be hoping to rebound from their first round defeat by denying T&T.

Jamaica, who should be strengthened by the return of Gayle, Taylor and Findlay, will meet CCC at Bourda in a match they want to win handsomely in order to stay in the race for a semi-final place.

If Gayle, Brenton Parchment, Xavier Marshall, Danza Hyatt, Wavell Hinds, Carlton Baugh and David Bernard all fire, the Floyd Reifer-led CCC could be placed under severe pressure.

CCC, however, are an improving team and Reifer, who top-scored with an unbeaten 45 in the first match against the Windwards, is at home at this level and Jamaica could find a strong challenge from the youthful unit as a result. 

Having already tasted international cricket, Omar Phillips and Chadwick Walton will want to impress with the bat to boost their chances of selection for next month’s tour of Australia.

Young West Indies will clash with Leeward Islands at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence, and will hope to make up for their loss to Barbados.

They played good cricket in that game and if they decide to strengthen their batting by including opener Trevon Griffith and Andre Creary to complement Kraigg Brathwaite, Evin Lewis Yannick Ottley, Yannick Carriah and Shane Dowrich, they could give the Leewards a run.

Leg-spinner Akeem Dewar took the Man-of-the-Match in a losing cause on Wednesday and along with talented off-spinner Dalton Polius and left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican will try to restrict the Leewards batting which includes Runako Morton, Kieran Powell, Chesney Hughes, Tonito Willett, Steve Liburd and Wilden Cornwall.

Lionel Baker and Gavin Tonge give the Leewards a potent new-ball attack while Willett, Justin Athanaze and Anthony Martin will do the spinning. (CMC)