Barrackpore West Secondary will aim to go one better tonight in the Powergen Secondary Schools boys Intercol T20 final, but standing in its way is a confident Carapichaima East Secondary unit.
Barrackpore and Carapichaima will face off at 6.30 pm at Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre. Prior to the boys final, Cedros Composite and Cunupia High will square off at 3 pm at the same venue in the girls open division final. In last year's boys final, Barrackpore West suffered a heartbreaking two-wicket loss to El Dorado East. Chasing a competitive 139 for victory, El Do got home with one ball to spare. Barrackpore's captain Keron Kanhai, who was part of last year's team, is hoping to go one better this year. At a press conference earlier this week, Kanhai said: "I will like to take this opportunity to wish Caps the best of luck on Friday night, but we will have the title this year."
Carapichaima, which has never made it this far in the competition, knows it will be tough to get past last year's finalist. Skipper Justin Joseph stated: "This year is the first year we will be in the final, we are just looking to go out there and play hard cricket, we know Barrackpore is a very strong team."
In the first semifinal, Carapichaima shocked 50-over league champions Vishnu Boys by 22 runs to advance to today's final. Fast bowler Anderson Phillip was the star for Caps, snatching 5/16.
In the second semifinal, Kanhai led from the front, scoring 32 and grabbing 3/18 to guide Barrackpore to a 21-run win over Naparima.
Carapichaima has Dejourn Charles, Brandon Ali, Joseph and Phillip to call on. Barrackpore also has national players in its unit, including Brandon Jaggernauth, Jeron Maniram and Kanhai.