Skipper Imran Khan and his T&T Red Force will be looking to shoot to the top of the standings in Group B of the Colonial Medical Insurance Cup Super50 on Thursday when they battle the United States in their sixth-round match at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain.
The Red Force are currently second on the table behind the West Indies Emerging Players. Both teams have won four matches but the Emerging Players have played one match more and hold the advantage over the Red Force based on their victory in the teams’ head-to-head clash earlier in the tournament.
If the Red Force wins against the USA today they will move to the top of the standings by four clear points.
This is the ambition of skipper Khan.
“We want to end at the top of the standings as we are playing at home. We want to position ourselves to be in a very good situation to get into the finals,” Khan told Guardian Media.
The winner of Group B will play the second places Group A team in the semis.
“We know that once we win the next three matches we will finish at the top of the standings and this is our aim. We are seeing improvements in all aspects of our cricket at the moment and the team is coming together nicely,” Khan said.
All the Red Force batsmen have scored runs in this tournament, with the major stroke players getting at least one half-century.
The bowling has also been good, which is not a good sign for the USA, although they toppled Emerging Players by 44 runs on Tuesday night at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba for their first win of the series.
The USA will obviously take confidence from that win and also look to topple the home team. They will also get a pitch to play on that is better suited to their type of cricket. The track at the BLCA on Tuesday was on the slow side, which made run-scoring a difficult art. The Americans are accustomed to playing on artificial turf where the ball goes onto the bat nicely, making strokeplay easier. They are expected to get a quicker strip at the Oval.
But the weather has been unpredictable so far in the series and there is rain in the forecast today. However, the players and officials will be hoping that there is enough play to get a result either way.
At the BLCA meanwhile, the Emerging Players will also battle against the Windward Islands, who are out of playoff contention after losing their latest match to the Guyana Jaguars by 22 runs on Tuesday.
Play gets underway from 1.30 pm at both venues.
TEAM
T&T Red Force: Imran Khan (cap), Yannick Ottley (vice-capt), Kyle Hope, Jeremy Solozano, Jason Mohammed, Tion Webster, Odean Smith, Anderson Phillip, Steven Katwaroo, Jon Ross Jaggesar, Keagan Simmons, Akeal Hosein, Darren Bravo, Isaiah Rajah, Mervyn Dillon (coach), David Furlonge (manager).
STANDINGS
GROUP A
Team*P*W*L*T*NR*PTS*NRR
Barbados Pride*6*5*1*0*0*20*1.058
Leeward Islands Hurricanes*6*4*2*0*0*16*0.738
Jamaica Scorpions*5*3*2*0*0*12*0.195
Canada*5*1*4*0*0*4*-0.453
CCC Marooners*6*1*5*0*0*4*-1.525
GROUP B
West Indies Emerging Players*6*4*2*0*0*16*0.331
T&T Red Force*5*4*1*0*0*16*0.604
Guyana Jaguars*6*4*2*0*0*16*0.016
Windward Islands Volcanoes*6*1*5*0*0*4*-0.491
USA*5*1*4*0*0*4*-0.343