Guyana will enter the West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) Regional Under-19 one-day finals today as favourites against the Windward Islands at the Everest Cricket Club ground.
The locals have won all six of their games in the round-robin stage and will hold the advantage against the Windwards, who lost two games on their way to the finals. The hosts defeated the Windwards by 114 runs at Albion while Barbados was the other team that won against the Windwards.
Playing at home will add to Guyana’s chances as they aim to win their first double and to win an inaugural title in the limited overs version at this level.
However, Guyana’s batsmen will have to perform in similar fashion like they did in the round-robin stage in order to get their team across the line. A fact that their coach Adrian Amsterdam supported in an interview with Stabroek Sport yesterday. Their batting will be led by West Indies U-19 players Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Shimron Hetmyer, both with over 200 runs along with the exhilarating Kemo Paul, who scored four half centuries in the preliminaries. Apart from those three batsmen the host’s batting battery comprises skipper Brian Sattaur, Renaldo Ali-Mohamed, Sharaz Ramcharran, Kemol Savoury and Balchand Baldeo.
An optimistic Amsterdam said his team is confident but would not be taking their opponents lightly.
He said on a wicket like Everest’s, there can be mixed fortunes, “one time it’s good for batting the other it’s not”. Thus he believes his spinners will have to play a key role in the match. The pacers, Paul and Ali-Mohamed will have to stay focused throughout to make a valuable contribution, once called upon, he said.
Three years ago Guyana narrowly missed out on the said title in Barbados after they drew a bye in the final round. Having to score 10 points to claim victory at that stage, the Windwards achieved their goal in winning their first limited overs title as they edged Guyana by one point.
“If we were to look at the style of play by my team in the preliminary stage, the bowling was our strength because our batting did not live up to expectations”, said Raymond Duncan, the Windwards coach. He said though Guyana defeated his team by a large margin in the round-robin stage, we studied our opponents’ strengths and weaknesses to counter that with winning strategies.
The burly aggressive opening batsman Gildron Pope, who scored two half centuries, will lead the Windwards batting department. He will be supported by the in form Kershaskie Jno Lewis and captain Roland Cato.
Much will be expected of fast bowler Ryan John the leading wicket taker for the Windwards with 10 scalps. Shermon Lewis, who has collected nine wickets will share the new ball with John. Pope also picked up nine wickets and can be effective with his off spin in the middle of Guyana’s innings.
If Guyana wins, it will be a historic year for local cricket. A win will give Guyana’s cricket its third title in less than a month after the U-15 team won in Jamaica and the U-19 team claimed the three-day title here.
