THE Guyana National Stadium comes alive today in what is expected to be an intriguing semi-final battle as tournament favourites Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago vie for a spot in the final of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional Super50 competition. The highly anticipated showdown sees hosts, Guyana, who topped Group A with 12 points, and Group B runner up from the Twin-Island Republic clash in the day/night match which gets under way at 13:30hrs.
The winner of this showdown will meet the victor of the other semi-final between Jamaica and Sagicor HPC who will also battle in a day/night match tomorrow at the Guyana National Stadium from 13:30 hrs.
All aspects favour a keen competition between Guyana and T&T as the inclement weather which beleaguered several matches in the Group stage has eased considerably, and even though the teams have not been at full strength, they have performed commendably.
Guyana are the only undefeated team in the tournament as they got the better of defending champions Windward Islands, Sagicor HPC and Barbados en route to the knockout stage round.
Trinidad, on the other hand, lost their opening encounter to Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) but bounced back with victories over Leeward Islands and next tournament favourites, Jamaica, to make it to the semis.
Neither team has put forth a solid batting performance for the tournament, but both excelled in the bowling department. Trinidad wield the talent of off-spinner Sunil Narine who is the leading wicket-taker in the competition.
Narine, who has 12 wickets with a best bowling performance of 6-48, will lead the bowling attack for T&T as he is supported by Samuel Badree, Dave Mohammed and Dwayne Bravo who have all proved their worth with the ball.
All-rounder Kieron Pollard who also helps with the ball and is very critical with the bat had his Super50 participation cut short when he suffered an injury in T&T’s second match against Leeward Islands and has returned home.
In the batting arena, T&T will be looking to openers William Perkins and Craig Guillen for a good start with the likes of Bravo, Jason Mohammed and Daren Ganga in the middle.
Jason Mohammed and Bravo are the only two batsmen who have made a half-century for T&T with the former seeded at second on Most Runs list with 130 runs, behind Jamaica’s Chris Gayle who leads with 200.
The team is without Lendl Simmons, Adrian Barath, Darren Bravo and Ravi Rampaul who often play a major part in the side.
On the other hand, Guyana’s bowling performance has been led by Steven Jacobs, Paul Wintz and Christopher Barnwell, who have five wickets each, while still being without prized bowlers Devendra Bishoo and Veersammy Permaul.
Their attack has been supported by Royston Crandon, captain Assad Fudadin and Stephen Latcha.
In batting, Guyana have struggled even though good performances have come from Travis Dowlin, Leon Johnson, Derwin Christian, Fudadin and Barnwell.
They have a weakened middle order as they lost Ramnaresh Sarwan to injury and are without experienced campaigners Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Narsingh Deonarine.

TEAMS:
Guyana – Assad Fudadin (captain), Leon Johnson (vice-captain), Christopher Barnwell, Ronsford Beaton, Derwin Christian, Royston Crandon, Travis Dowlin, Jonathan Foo, Norman Fredericks, Trevon Griffith, Steven Jacobs, Amir Khan, Steven Latcha, Paul Wintz.

Trinidad & Tobago
Daren Ganga (captain), Dwayne Bravo (vice-captain), Kieron Pollard, Jason Mohammed, Kevon Cooper, Imran Khan, Sherwin Ganga, Dave Mohammed, Samuel Badree, Rayad Emrit, Stephen Katwaroo, Sunil Narine, William Perkins, Justin Guillen.