Current leaders in Group A of the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Super50 Tournament, the T&T Red Force will battle second place Guyana today at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in round five of the competition.
Red Force which recorded its latest win over the Windies B team at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain on Thursday night, will be looking for win number five in as many matches.
Guyana, on the other hand, won three of its four matches to date to keep up the pressure on the powerful Red Force unit. With the top two teams from this group advancing to the semi-finals in Barbados at the end of the month, these two will be looking to cement their spot as quickly as possible.
Red Force easily defeated Guyana when the two met earlier in the tournament at the Queen’s Park Oval. This will be the Red Force’s first game at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, while Guyana has already played twice on the turf. The strip is not as quick as the ones at the Queen’s Park Oval, so the Red Force batsmen will have to do some quick adjusting.
On Thursday night Red Force batsmen finally delivered with a total of 318 for nine wickets after 50 overs against the Windies B.
Batting first the Red Force, Jason Mohammed scored 83 off 90 deliveries with six fours and four sixes. Opener Lendl Simmons batted well and scored a run-a-ball 75 laced with 13 fours.
He and Mohammed added 105 runs for the second wicket off 19 overs, after the early loss of Kyle Hope. When Simmons left with the score at 122 for two after 23 overs, skipper Denesh Ramdin came in and scored a polished 55 in adding a further 102 runs for the third wicket with Mohammed. Ramdin's runs came off 66 balls with four fours and one six.
After this, there were two cameos from Dwayne Bravo and Keiron Pollard. Bravo struck 21 off 20 balls with two sixes, while Pollard made 30 runs off 12 balls with four sixes. The pick of the bowlers for the opposition was T&T's Bryan Charles who took 3/48 off his 10-over-allotment. There were also two wickets apiece for Alzari Joseph and Chemar Holder.
The Windies B fought well but in the end, they still fell short by 70 runs. Trinidadian Keagan Simmons followed in the footsteps of his cousin, Lendl, as he made 60 from 76 balls with eight fours to lead the way. When he fell, the Windies B got two aggressive contributions from fast bowlers Alzari Joseph and Odean Smith. Joseph scored 51 runs off 36 balls with one four and six sixes, while Smith made 49 off 42 balls with six fours and two sixes.
Bowling for the Red Force off-spinner Sunil Narine took 3/38, while there were two wickets apiece for Ravi Rampaul and Dwayne Bravo.
The second match today will see Windwards against Canada at the Queen’s Park Oval. Both matches will get underway at 11.30am.
TEAMS
Red Force: Evin Lewis, Kyle Hope, Darren Bravo, Denesh Ramdin, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Nicholas Pooran, Sunil Narine, Khary Pierre, Imran Khan, Ravindaranth Rampaul, Jason Mohammed, Lendl Simmons and Rayad Emrit.
Jaguars: Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Raymon Reifer, Leon Johnson, Sherfane Rutherford, Anthony Bramble, Christopher Barnwell, Romario Shepherd, Veerasammy Permaul, Gudakesh Motie, Ramaal Lewis, Ricardo Adams, Trevon Griffith, Clinton Pestano.