T&T Red Force will be going after its second win when the local team opposes the Barbados Pride in its fourth match of the West Indies Four-day Championship at the Brian Lara Academy in Tarouba, San Fernando from 2 pm today.
The Red Force will, however, return to its bogey venue, where it has not won a match in five attempts. The The Denesh Ramdin-led team has suffered four losses out of five matches, with the very first match at the venue ending in a draw last season against Jamaica.
Red Force has not even won a toss at this venue, where the toss is important given the nature of the track. After two losses to begin this campaign at Tarouba against the Windward Islands Volcanoes and the Leewards Islands Hurricanes, the T&T Red Force went to Jamaica and defeated the win-less Jamaican Scorpions against all odds.
Today, the T&T team faces tougher opposition in Barbados, who also has one win under its belt. The toss will again be crucial, so the Red Force will be hoping to call correctly when the coin goes upwards into the air.
The national selectors, headed by former Test player Anthony Gray, were careful to choose the team as they waited until 2 pm yesterday to settle on a squad. In the end, they made just the one forced change, that of Darren Bravo who is away with the Windies team. With the left-hander travelling to Barbados to face England in the opening Test, his place goes to off-spinner Jon Russ Jaggessar.
Red Force is just below the Barbados Pride in the standings in the fifth position with 28 points. Pride has 29.8 and will be looking to widen that gap after this match.
At the moment, Guyana seems intent on making it five titles in a row, as it has won all four matches this season and is at the top of the standings on 80.2. They are followed by the Leewards Hurricanes on 43.2. In the third spot at the moment is the Windward Islands who have garnered 42.8 points from four matches.
LATEST STANDINGS
Team*P*W*L*D*PTS
Guyana*4*4*0*0*80.2
Leewards*3*2*1*0*43.2
Windwards*4*2*2*0*42.8
Barbados*3*1*2*0*29.8
Red Force*3*1*2*0*28
Jamaica*3*0*3*0*14.4
Red Force squad
Denesh Ramdin (captain), Kyle Hope, Yannic Cariah, Jeremy Solozano, Jason Mohammed, Imran Khan, Odean Smith, Khary Pierre, Daniel St Clair, Anderson Phillip, Joshua Da Silva, Amir Jangoo, Jon Russ Jagessar.
Staff: Kelvin Williams (coach), Roland Sampath (manager), Jason Pilgrim (physio)