BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – With Jamaica having regained the regional first-class title, a long, hard season dawdles nearer to its close with the penultimate round of matches in the WICB four-day competition for the Headley/Weekes Trophy set to begin today.
With the outcome already decided, teams will seek to line themselves up behind the champions, and players will look to enhance their final statistics.
At the Valley, Leewards are hoping to further improve their overall position against T&T.
The Leewards are currently third in the championship on 65 points behind 2009 champions Jamaica and the Windwards on 75 points.
T&T jointly share fourth place with Barbados on 54 points and only an outright win will push them ahead of the Leewards.
The two teams will be playing on a recently re-laid pitch, and members of the ground-staff have said it should offer early bounce and pace to the fast bowlers, but eventually dry out and provide a good surface for stroke-play.
When the two sides met in February, T&T gained first innings points in a drawn match at the Frank Worrell Memorial Ground in Trinidad.
With the Leewards on a tear, they will be looking to get the better of their opponents this time around with Runako Morton, like Deonarine, looking to finish the season as the leading run-scorer.
At Cave Hill, it’s a showdown between two sides that should know each other very well, when the CCC meet Barbados.
The CCC, a virtual Barbados third-string side with a number of Barbadians in the line-up, have blown hot and cold this season.
But they are coming off a strong batting performance in a drawn match against the Leewards, and have equipped themselves fairly well at home.
The Barbadians have lost their last three matches, and the CCC will hope they can conjure up the kind of performance that would add insult to injury.
Barbados will be led by Corey Collymore, their third captain of the season, following the axing of Jason Haynes and Dale Richards’ call-up to West Indies duty, and will see schoolboy Kraigg Braithwaite make his first-class debut at the tender age of 16.
