HAVING lost their second match to defending champions Trinidad and Tobago in this year’s West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Caribbean T20 tournament, two-time champions Guyana find themselves in a ‘win-big’ dilemma when they oppose group leaders Windward Islands at the Kensington Oval tonight. When these two teams met in last year’s tournament at the same venue, the Windward Islands came away with a nail biting two-run victory over the Ramnaresh Sarwan-led Guyana team, which had earlier participated in the Airtel Champions League in South Africa.
But while the cream of the crop for the Windward Islands team is back in the limelight this year, Guyana are competing without the services of Sarwan, Jonathan Foo, Travis Dowlin and all-rounder Esaun Crandon.
Guyana defeated Canada by eight wickets at the on Tuesday night, thanks to Narsingh Deonarine’s unbeaten half-century and Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s resilience.
The two added an unbroken 91 for the third wicket, after their team got a magnificent start of 53 from pugnacious openers Trevon Griffith and Sewnarine Chattergoon, which laid the foundation for the win against a hapless-looking Canadian line-up that included former Guyana fast bowler Jeremy Gordon.
For tonight’s encounter, all that will be history as the Guyanese will be focusing on securing a place in the final four of the tournament which has a magnificent first prize of US$62 500, one-year bragging rights and a place in the Nokia Champions League in India later this year.
Speaking with Chronicle Sport after the win against Canada, Guyana skipper Christopher Barnwell said the win was an important one for the team, taking into consideration the way they achieved same.
“It was an important win for us. We won in 17 overs which helped increase our run rate slightly and I must say thanks to our bowlers who restricted them to a moderate total, even though we give away some runs during the course of their innings.
“Nevertheless, we bowled and fielded well as a unit, while it was important for us to get off to a good start, which young Trevon Griffith and Sewnarine Chattergoon provided, paving the way for the experienced Narsingh Deonarine and Shivnarine Chanderpaul taking us to victory in the end.”
Certainly, the 26-year-old Barnwell, his teammates, management crew and the Guyanese back home would look for a win against the Windward Islands tonight and even more so, a handsome one which can take their team whose net run rate reads +0.152, past the group leaders’ +1.013.
Griffith and Chattergoon will be looking to repeat their performance tonight, while the feats of Deonarine and Chanderpaul, along with Barnwell, Leon Johnson, Royston Crandon, Steven Jacobs and Derwin Christian who tried single-handedly to steer Guyana to victory last year, are well known with the bat.
How they fare against the Windwards’ bowling that is led by off-spinner Shane Shillingford and includes Gary Mathurin, Liam Sebastien, Nelon Pascal, Kenroy Peters and West Indies skipper Darren Sammy, who is a danger man in this format of the game with the ball, is another topic for debate.
In the bowling department, Jacobs will be looking for a much-improved performance with the new ball, especially against the opposition’s batting lineup that includes the pugnacious Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Miles Bascombe, Devon Smith and Sebastien.
Jacobs will get support from Barnwell, Crandon, Deonarine, West Indies leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo and his spin twin Veerasammy Permaul, while both Barnwell and coach Ravindranauth Seeram will be monitoring Jacobs’ bowling during the first six overs.
Barnwell exuded confidence in his team advancing to the final four which bowls off on Saturday, with the final, which will be preceded by the third-place playoff, being played the following day at the Kensington Oval.
“We achieved our objective tonight which was to win and win comfortably. We will be looking to play smart cricket against the Windward Islands Thursday (tonight).
Hopefully I am looking to win the toss and insert them, allowing the bowlers to restrict them for a small total, allowing our batsmen to knock it off quickly and I know that the camaraderie that is circulating in the team at the moment, along with the confidence level, we can do it,” stated Barnwell.
Umpires are Vincent Bullen and Joel Wilson.