… Sixth round Regional 4-Day bowls off today

The Guyana Jaguars will be aiming to exploit some of the chinks in the visiting Windward Islands Volcanoes’ armour when the two teams meet in the sixth round of Cricket West Indies (CWI) Professional Cricket League (PCL) Four-day game from today at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.

The three-times defending champions have been virtually flawless in the tournament, winning four of their five matches so far, to sit comfortably on top with 86.4 points.
On the other hand, the Volcanoes sit at the bottom of the points table on 21 points. However, captain Leon Johnson has urged his team-mates to seize the moment and capitalise on visitors’ vulnerability.

“We are very confident heading into tomorrow’s (today) clash … obviously coming off a good win against Barbados Pride. We played excellent cricket during the first half of the season, and we are just looking to continue down that road, but having said that, the Windward Islands (Volcanoes) have been struggling somewhat … so we will be looking to exploit their weakness,” Johnson said during an exclusive interview with Chronicle Sport yesterday.

The Jaguars have been the most dominant team in the history of the Franchise cricket, winning 32 of the 35 games they played to date.
They surely start today’s contest as firm favourites and with home advantage, the visitors are definitely up for a tough battle.

“It will be nice to get a win since we are 25 points ahead, and a victory here will put us way ahead on the table … Providence has been good to us over the years so we just have to continue to do well here,” said the 30-year-old.
Meanwhile, Windward Islands Volcanoes head coach Andre Coley says the visitors are bracing for a strong challenge from a dominant Guyana Jaguars unit but will be going all out to play tough cricket.

He pointed out that, while his side are expecting a tough battle, they would be looking to execute their game plan clinically.
Play starts at 09:30hrs and admission into the venue is free. The other sixth round fixture will see Jamaica Scorpions host Trinidad and Tobago Red Force at Sabina Park while Leeward Islands Hurricanes play Barbados Pride at Warner Park.
Meanwhile, the Jaguars have named an unchanged 13-man squad for the key sixth round clash.

Guyana Jaguars squad reads: Leon Johnson (captain), Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Vishaul Singh, Anthony Bramble, Keemo Paul, Akshaya Persaud, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd, Veerasammy Permaul, Gudakesh Motie and Keon Joseph.

Windward Islands Volcanoes squad reads: Tyron Theophile (captain), Taryck Gabriel, Miles Bascombe, Shermon Lewis, Delorn Johnson, Kyle Mayers, Roland Cato, Shane Shillingford, Audy Alexander, Devon Smith, Donwell Hector, Dennis Smith and Kenneth Dember.