T&T all rounders Dwayne Bravo and Keiron Pollard will be in action today when they come up against Jamaica in the second round of the 2015 Nagico Super50 Challenge at the Queen's Park Oval.
The duo, controversially dropped from the West Indies team for the upcoming World Cup in New Zealand and Australia, will showcase their wares in front of what is expected to be a good crowd at the Mecca of local cricket.
They missed the opening win against the West Indies Under-19 team on Friday in Tobago because they were travelling back from South Africa, where they represented the West Indies in the three-match T20 series against that country.
Red Force skipper Rayad Emrit confirmed to T&T Guardian yesterday that the two will be in the line-up today. "Bravo and Pollard is back and will be playing against Jamaica in our match tomorrow. We are not overly confident going into this one. We know Jamaica is probably the toughest team in our group, so we have to be really focused on the job at hand. Having said that we are pretty confident that we can get the job done against them and the return of Bravo and Pollard will surely be a plus for us. They bring so much to the team and we are looking forward to these guys joining us. We had a good outing in the first game and although we lost some wickets at the end of our chase we are not too worried about that. We needed to win the game within 16.4 overs to get the bonus point so we had to go after the bowling in the end.
"Although we are under pressure playing at home in front of your own crowd, we are up for it and we are going to give the fans a good show in this match." Red Force won the opening against the West Indies Under-18s by five wickets at Shaw Park and got a bonus point for the win.
Meanwhile, the Jamaicans mowed down the Leewards and they will be looking to upset the hosts and take leadership of Group B. The match gets underway at 1.30 pm and gates will be opened at 11 am.
Meanwhile, there was no play again at the National Cricket Centre (NCC) in Couva, yesterday where the Combined Colleges and Campuses were due to play the Windward Islands. A wet outfield made play impossible. The CCC now has four points from two abandon games, while the Windwards got two.
Teams
Red Force:
Rayad Emrit (Captain), Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Kevon Cooper, Akeal Hosein, Stephen Katwaroo, Imran Khan, Evin Lewis, Jason Mohammed, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Ravi Rampaul, Jeremy Solozano
and Nicholas Sookdeosingh.
Jamaica:
Nikita Miller (Captain), Dave Bernard Jr, Jermaine Blackwood, Nkrumah Bonner, Gavan Brown, Dennis Bulli, John Campbell, Derval Green, Danza Hyatt, Damion Jacobs, Tamar Lambert, Andre McCarthy, Horace Miller, Marquino Mindley.?