GIZMOS and Gadgets Georgetown Pitbulls and Guyana Cricket Board President’s XI will collide in today’s final of the Guyana Cricket Board-organised, Carib Beer/Pepsi-sponsored Twenty20 competition at the Albion Community Centre ground, from 13:00hrs.
Preceding this encounter will be the all-Berbice third-place playoff, featuring local T20 powerhouse Church’s Chicken Corentyne Titans and Mario’s Pizza West Berbice Super Kings, which gets under way at 09:00hrs.
Gizmos and Gadgets Georgetown Pitbulls Totaram Bishun’s mesmerising return of 6 for 16, recorded against the Young Conquerors also in the Super 8 stage of the competition, remains to date the best bowling figures, although he took four more against West Berbice Super Kings in the semi-finals.
National fast bowlers Brandon Bess and Keon Joseph will lead the Super Kings’ bowling attack with worthy support from Ramoo, Devon Clements, the veteran Eon Abel, the unrelated Keron and Keith Fraser and the lesser known Karamdat Bissoondyal and Steffon Adams.
Their batting lineup includes national T20 opener Richard Ramdeen and he will receive support from Clements, Bissoondyal, Romain Boodram, Abel, Keith Fraser and to an extent Bess and wicketkeeper-batsman Kwesi Mentore.
The batting feats of Royston Crandon, Sewnarine Chattergoon and Narsingh Deonarine who are all former West Indies players, national skipper Assad Fudadin, Rajiv Ivan and Anthony Bramble are known across the Ancient County, hence they are expected to take the Titans to the third place position with ease.
National Under-19 all-rounder Clinton Pestano will take charge of the new ball in the team whose bowling is spin-based and led by Ivan, who has been wreaking havoc in Berbice with his off-spin, with support from Lionel, Deonarine, Crandon and Stephen Latcha, while Fudadin can offer support with his medium pace.
They will be buoyed by the availability of West Indies ‘A’ team skipper Veerasammy Permaul, who is expected to add more spin to their lineup.
While the final may not appear to be important to the cricket-loving public in the Ancient County, since it will not involve a team from Berbice, the fans should be eager to witness the bowling of Rose Hall Town Gizmos and Gadgets’ Eon Hooper against the batting of Leon Johnson, Christopher Barnwell and Steven Jacobs.
How they fare against the Barnwell-led Pitbulls whose lineup includes players who have represented Guyana at the senior and junior levels in recent times, is left to be seen.
Barnwell is returning from a short stint with the West Indies ‘A’ team along with Johnson, while he has featured prominently with the senior team in this form of the game and is expected to lead from the front today, if he intends to lead his team to the $1M first prize.
Apart from Barnwell, Johnson and Jacobs, the lineup also includes Trevon Griffith, Shemroy Barrington, Wasim Haslim, Dion Ferrier, Troy Gonsalves, Rajendra Chandrika and Kellon Carmichael, who are all useful customers with the bat, while Derwin Christian, another West Indies T20 player, can also contribute to a projected target.
With a bowling lineup that is being led by Bishun, with good support from Carmichael, Barnwell, Gonsalves, Jacobs, Johnson and Ferrier, the Vishal Singh-led President’s XI will have their work cut out for them, if they intend to take the top prize away from the favoured opposition.
They themselves possess a powerful and balanced lineup, as, apart from Singh their batting lineup boasts Elton Baker, Norman Fredericks, Abhilash Dookie, Renwick Batson, Jeetendra Sookdeo, brothers Dillon and Jason Heyliger, David Dick and wicketkeeper/batsman Jason Sinclair.
Guyana and West Indies Under-19 fast bowler Ronsford Beaton and his teammate Amir Khan, Leon Scott, Zaheer Mohammed and the two Heyligers are useful with the ball in hand and can render worthy support to Hooper. All of this makes the feature encounter, a must-see by the cricket-loving public in Berbice.