Sports
Windwards closest, but five teams eye title
CMC
Saturday, July 24, 2010
CASTRIES, St Lucia (CMC) — Five of the six teams participating in this year's TCL Group West Indies Under-19 Challenge can still capture the title, but Windward Islands will start the fifth and final round in pole position when it bowls off here today.
They currently sit at the top of the table on 27 points and will clash up with Leeward Islands, who lie rock bottom on six points and have no chance of winning the coveted championship.
The clash is scheduled for the Beausejour Cricket Ground and the Windwards will be highly fancied after playing some consistent cricket so far and picking up first innings points against defending champion Jamaica in the rain affected fourth round that ended here Thursday.
"The momentum is with us right now, but we will not be complacent against the Leewards. There are other teams that can overhaul our points tally and win. We will be trying hard to gain maximum points," Windwards manager Shawn Edward told CMC Sports.
"We need to win to be sure. We will not underestimate the Leewards and will be going out there to play positive cricket. We have always done well against the Leewards and we have confidence and form going within us."
Jamaica, on 24 points and Barbados on 21, are two of the teams which can still win the championship.
Jamaica's coach Robert Samuels said he expected his side to pull out all stops in the final round.
"We have not played our best game yet. Hopefully it will come against the Barbadians. I am looking forward to this fifth round which should be a very interesting round," Samuels said.
"Like many other teams we are still in with a chance and we will be looking to see how well we can stick to our game plan.
"I thought the Windwards did pretty well to stick to their game plan in the last round, they stuck to it and bowled very consistently when we thought we would have had our best day."
The Barbadians will be pleased to move away from the Dennery Playing Field where they lost the entire second day of the fourth round and 196 overs overall, to rain.
On the final day, only 40 minutes play was possible before lunch and rain again at 3:20 ended Barbados' hopes of first innings points against Guyana.
"It was certainly a setback for us losing so much time in that match when we were aiming for an outright win to put us up there with the leaders," Coppin lamented.
"It was disappointing losing so much playing time. We are looking forward to three days of good weather in the final round."
The other game of the series features Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana clashing at Dennery.
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