Regional T20 cricket..   
(In Barbados, compliments of Star Party Rentals, NAMILCO, Giftland OfficeMax and Igloo Ice-cream)
INAUGURAL Regional Twenty20 champions Guyana would be looking to make it two out of two in the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Twenty20 tournament today, when they go up against the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) at the Kensington Oval. Both sides had contrasting results in their first round matches, with Guyana recording a five-wicket victory over the Windward Islands while CCC lost an exciting encounter to Barbados which went down to the Super Over rule.
Debutants Devendra Bishoo and pugnacious all-rounder Jonathan Foo, along with experienced players Travis Dowlin and the veteran Lennox Cush, were the architects behind Guyana’s victory, while Ryan Wiggins tried desperately to see CCC home against the host country.
Certainly, skipper Ramnaresh Sarwan would be hoping his first game quartet turn in the same performance or even better against the University students, especially Foo who was delighted with his performance for his country.
“When I went in to bat the captain (Ramnaresh Sarwan) told me ‘just believe in yourself, we believe in you’. He told me it would be a lot of pressure but he also told me to play my own game and things would work out.
That gave me the confidence to go out and do the job. Everyone was backing each other. We never gave up. Coming close to the end there, it was a lot of runs against a few balls so I knew what I had to do,” stated Foo.
A question mark still lingers over the bowling department of the team, even though Esaun Crandon, Christopher Barnwell and Narsingh Deonarine offered valuable support to Cush and Bishoo, while Royston Crandon was expensive, conceding 45 runs from his four overs.
Such a performance means that Sarwan should be concerned over the CCC’s batting, which is led by Wiggins and openers Romel Currency and Miles Bascombe who added 80 for the first wicket from 7.5 overs against Barbados , chasing a huge 181 for victory.
However, what would be a plus for the Guyanese is the batting of Dowlin, Foo, Barnwell and to a lesser extent, the skipper himself, against the Windward Islands bowling attack which was led by the lively Nelon Pascal.
CCC does not possess such fiery fast bowlers, but it does have Guyanese fast bowler Gilbert Moore, Barbadian Barrington Yearwood who will be tasked with taking care of the new ball against the team from the Land of Many Waters.
There is also Wiggins, Nekoli Parris, Kavesh Kantasingh and Ryan Austin, but should Guyana field the same eleven that faced the Windwards in the first match, then their batsmen’s work is cut out for them.
The Guyanese had a practice session at the Kensington Oval yesterday and one good sign was the power hitting by some of the batsmen, including Foo, Sarwan and wicketkeeper Derwin Christian.
CCC crumbled against the Barbadians, slipping from a comfortable position of 80-1 in the eighth over, to 120-5 six overs later, but thanks to Wiggins and player/coach Floyd Reifer, they forced the game into the Super Over.
But Reifer and skipper Omar Phillips will be looking to Chadwick Walton, Yearwood (who was used as a pinch hitter) and Parris to turn in a much better performance today against Cush, Bishoo and company.
The action gets under way at 14:00 h with the winning team being guaranteed a place in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Champions League to be held in South Africa this September. Cricket fans in the Land of the Flying Fish can expect another thrilling encounter.
Guyana – Ramnaresh Sarwan (captain), Sewnarine Chattergoon, Christopher Barnwell, Travis Dowlin, Narsingh Deonarine, Derwin Christian, Lennox Cush, Royston Crandon, Devendra Bishoo, Esaun Crandon, Jonathan Foo, Paul Wintz, Steven Jacobs and Assad Fudadin
Combined Campuses & Colleges: Omar Phillips (captain), Floyd Reifer, Ryan Austin, Miles Bascombe, Ruel Braithwaite, Romel Currency, Kavesh Kantasingh, Gilford Moore, Kjorn Ottley, Nekoli Parris, Raymon Reifer, Marlon Richards, Chadwick Walton, Ryan Wiggins and Barrington Yearwood.