The Guyanese picked up their first win in two seasons when they got past the Leeward Islands in Trinidad and Tobago in the last round and will be focused on continuing this success at the National Stadium here.
Foremost in Guyana’s mind will be their loss to the Windwards last season at the same venue.
“A lot of people were upset at home that they beat us last year so we hope to beat them this year,” said Guyana’s manager Carl Moore.
“Having won the previous match that has given them a fillip so we are hoping to go out in glory so we are going to go all out to win the match outright.”
Guyana will welcome back gifted batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan for his first game of the season, after recovering from injury sustained on West Indies duty Down Under last December.
He will assume captaincy of the unit that will be without veteran left-hander Shiv Chanderpaul whose unbeaten century in the last round set up Guyana’s win.
Chanderpaul has been called up to the Windies side for the one-off Twenty20 International against Zimbabwe but Moore said Sarwan’s presence would further increase the side’s strength, both in the batting department and inspirationally.
“We are going to be depending heavily on the batting. We are hoping for a very big score,” Moore said.
“We have Sarwan there know who I am sure would inspire a lot of the players. He is a very good leader.”
Guyana are one from bottom of the seven-team standings on 19 points, three points ahead of the Windward Islands.
The hosts, meanwhile, will be bolstered by their recent record against the Guyanese. They twice beat them by big margins in the extended season last year and the previous four encounters finished in draws.
In fact, Windwards have not lost to Guyana since 2003, a record that will do the world of good to their confidence ahead of the match.
They have made three changes to the squad that traveled to Port of Spain for the last round of matches, with Kenroy Peters and Deighton Butler dropped and Andre Fletcher called up for the T20I against Zimbabwe in T&T on Sunday.
The trio have been replaced by Vincentian fast bowlers Keswick Williams, Delorn Johnson and Dominican batsman Junior Jervier.
SQUAD (from):
WINDWARDS – Devon Smith (captain), Gary Mathurin, Junior Jervier, Liam Sebastien, Lyndon James, Nelon Pascal, Miles Bascombe, Rawle Lewis, Shane Shillingford, Keswick Williams, Delorn Johnson, Tyrone Theophille, Graig Emmanuel.
GUYANA – Ramnaresh Sarwan (captain), Sewnarine Chattergoon, Brandon Bess, Davendra Bishoo, Rajendra Chandrika, Derwin Christian, Esuan Crandon, Royston Crandon, Assad Fudadin, Keon Joseph, Zaheer Mohammed, Veerasammy Permaul, Gajanand Singh.
