By Brij Parasnath in Trinidad and Tobago

UNBEATEN Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana will do battle for overall leadership position in the West Indies Cricket Board Under-17s tournament. Both teams remained undefeated after three rounds and the winner of their encounter today at the National Cricket Centre, Balmain, Couva will determine which team will strengthen their chances of lifting the regional youth title.
On Thursday, all third-round matches were abandoned because of torrential downpour which left all the venues in a deplorable state and unfit for competitive cricket. Most of them looked like mudlark paradises.
Trinidad and Tobago registered convincing victories over defending champions Windward Islands and Jamaica while Guyana crushed Leeward Islands and Barbados in their first two rounds.
Playing at home, the Trinidad and Tobago team will start as favourites but will depend heavily on the prolific Cephas Cooper and form-batsman Navin Bidaisee to lead the way with the bat.
Left-handed opener Bidaisee batted confidently and topscored with 67 against Jamaica and received solid support from Leonardo Francis as they featured in the best opening partnership so far in the six-team tourney.
Bidaisee and Francis shared a 85-run first-wicket stand that laid the foundation for the eight-wicket victory over Jamaica at NCC while Cooper joined in the run-spree with his attractive strokeplay and was undefeated on 33 when the emphatic victory was sealed on Tuesday.
T&T captain Kirstan Kallicharran is yet to stamp his class on the tournament and once he gets into groove he can also post big scores. Brandon Singh and Nathaniel McDavid are also reliable batsmen who can contribute significantly with both bat and ball.
Guyana will be banking on their battery of spinners; including skipper Bhaskar Yadram, Kevin Sinclair, Kelvin Umroa, Ashmead Nedd and Alpheus Bookie; to restrict the Trinidadians as they did against Barbados who were bowled out for a miserly 59 runs.
But they will find that the Trinidadian batsmen are more adept to spin than their Barbadian counterparts and the encounter could prove to be a thrilling affair as they battle for supremacy.
Guyana captain Bhaskar Yadram as well as Sachin Singh, vice-captain Joshua Persaud and Steve Deonarain must produce with the bat to give their team a fighting chance to emerge victorious.
Meanwhile, Windwards will take on Jamaica at the Queen’s Park Oval while Barbados and Leeward Islands will clash at the Inshan Ali Park, Preysal.
All matches starts at 09:30hrs