In the other match of the competition the Rest XI will play hosts to Essequibo who are at the bottom of the points table.
Hopefully this time Essequibo will put up a fight as they did against Demerara in their first round encounter when they took first innings points from second place Demerara but eventually lost outright after a second innings batting collapse.
In their second match Berbice, with two outright wins, whipped the hapless Essequibians in their own backyard by an innings and 371 runs within three days last week.
But the team was hastily selected on the morning of the match which saw Berbice piling up 553-8 declared with Assad Fudadin scoring an aggressive double century.
The Rest XI, which is made up of players who did not make their team’s final 14, on the other hand took first innings points from Demerara last week in the high scoring second round match.
However, that match was prematurely ended when the officials responsible for the ground at Eve Leary rented out the ground- preventing any play on the last day.
Rest XI’s batsman Vishal Singh was left stranded on an unbeaten 97 and his team on 257-4 in their second innings after making 444 all out in the first innings. Therefore, Essequibo will have their work cut out if their players are not properly prepared for their task today. Meanwhile, Berbice are confident going into today’s game.
According to Fudadin and his team, they will be looking to win the match and make a clean sweep of the inter-county tournaments this year.
This can become a reality with the availability of the Crandon brothers, Esaun and Royston, who were out with groin and finger injuries respectively. Wicketkeeper Delbert Hicks is slated to return to replace Delbert Hicks, who made an unbeaten half century in the last match.
Demerara will also be fielding a strong team albeit without the services of West Indies batsmen Ramnaresh Sarwan and Travis Dowlin.
