Guyana Harpy Eagles will make a push for a spot in the final of the CG United Regional Super50 but in their way are the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force as both teams clash in a day/night encounter today.
In the group stage, Red Force emerged as the only undefeated team, taking away five wins in seven matches. The other two matches were rained out but nevertheless, Red Force walked away at the top of the table with 49 points.
Harpy Eagles on the other hand were on the cusp of elimination after suffering two losses but a miraculous performance from two of their main batters when they needed it most ensured them a spot in the final four.
Guyana’s spinners have also shown their potency with Kevin Sinclair leading the way with 14 wickets. Left-arm spinning duo from Albion, Gudakesh Motie and Veerasammy Permaul both have 11 wickets so far and with a knack for big matches, may be a handful for the Red Force batsmen.
A big gap in the bowling was left with the departure of Romario Shepherd and as such Nial Smith and Quinton Sampson may need to step up in the seam department.
Eagles will be happy to see Shimron Hetmyer and Tagenarine Chanderpaul coming good. Both batsmen doubled their tournament tally in their last innings and inspired Eagles to a heavy win over Scorpions that booked their place in this match.
Aside from these two, Sherfane Rutherford has gotten Guyana over the line with 248 runs across seven innings and his big hitting abilities has him standing with the most sixes so far in the competition. Tevin Imlach, who was appointed captain in the last match also enjoys success with the bat, scoring 233 runs in seven innings.
Should Guyana be able to produce a resounding batting performance, this quartet will need to come to the party.
A sore point for Eagles will be who opens with Chanderpaul as Kevlon Anderson, Sinclair and Chandrapaul Hemraj have all been tried but are yet to get that massive opening stand.
Meanwhile, Red Force has been heavily dependent on their most experienced batsman, Darren Bravo, who after 198 List A matches over a 16-year career, struck his best score in the format, 139 not out in his previous innings. In the process, he also crossed 6000 runs in the format and has so far scored 323 runs in six innings. It is performances like these that saw Red Force score over 250 runs on four occasions while Eagles are yet to surpass that landmark.
Bravo has gained valuable support from Kjorn Ottley (259 runs) who has the second highest individual score of the competition behind only Bravo, Jason Mohammed with 214 runs and Yannic Cariah with 165 runs.
Red Force will want Nicholas Pooran to hit the ground running after scoring 18 runs in his first innings of the tournament.
With the ball, their experienced spinners in Sunil Narine and Cariah have both gotten the job done with 16 wickets each under their belts. Terrance Hinds and Shannon Gabriel have supported so far with six wickets each.
