Four-time consecutive champions, Guyana Jaguars will enter their final match of the Cricket West Indies Regional Four-Day Championships with their mind focused on securing the title with a win over Trinidad and Tobago Red Force today.
At Providence, the day and night affair will begin from 14.00 hours and the home team will enter the contest with an unchanged side.
This was confirmed by Head Coach of the Jaguars, Rayon Griffith following the team’s training session yesterday.
Jaguars are currently at the top of the table with 136 points, 25.2 points in front of the Leeward Island Hurricanes who have two matches remaining.
Red Force has been condemned to the bottom half of the table, hovering in fifth position with 85.6 points.
Should Jaguars win this match, achieving the maximum points, they will be guaranteed the title for the fifth year in succession, with the most possible points for a win being 24 points.
Griffith has already signalled his intent for the batting to take center stage. Griffith has suggested that the team needs to get back to making “at least 350 runs in the first innings,” a feat they have not accomplished twice this season.
Griffith also suggested that the team has the potential to reach those targets saying.. “we still have to get better totals in the first innings, we have a strong batting line up with [Sherfane] Rutherford batting down the order, I think they need to give us at least 350 that is our strength batting and putting a big total.”
Vice-captain of the side, Vishaul Singh shared similar sentiments as he called on the batting line up to show its worth and put a big total on the board as they look to end the season strongly.
The left-handed batsman said that the mood in the camp was pretty good, noting their convincing victory over this very opposition in the day/night match last season.
Singh pointed out that there is a lot of motivation in the side to win their fifth straight title, a feat that has only been achieved once.
The 30-year-old was adamant about the importance of the game and brushed off any suggestions of nightmares from their defeat to Red Force earlier in the season.
Griffith explained that for the match the only difference is the pink ball, stating “with the pink ball, the only thing you face is the condition at night, we just need to manage that condition and I believe we will do well against them.”
Singh also added that the day/night contest does add a bit more of variation with the dew factor coming into play.
For the tournament, Anthony Bramble and Tagenarine Chanderpaul have led with the bat, both closing in on 500 runs for the season while skipper, Leon Johnson, has tallied 404 runs so far.
The all-rounders have stepped their game up this season with Raymon Reifer leading the pack with 213 runs at an average of 35 with the bat and 23 wickets. Romario Shepherd has also been in the fold with Christopher Barnwell.
