ST GEORGE’S College and Calabar High will face each other in the 2016 Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/GraceKennedy High School boys’ Urban Under-16 two-day cricket final, beginning today at 10:00 am at the Melbourne Cricket Club.

Both teams have won all their matches leading up to today’s final and were winners of their respective group in the semi-final round.

Technical Director John Gordon, who is also head coach of the St George’s College team, said he is very confident that the players can pull off victory and claim the title.

“I, however, have not seen Calabar Under-16 in action, but in the Grace Shield Under-19 competition, the players have played against a few of them. They, however, have four National Under-15 players in their line-up, and our players are accustomed to playing against the Red Hills Road-based opponents in the Grace Shield, older age-group competition,” Gordon, the former Jamaica leg-spinner, said.

He has three very good batsmen who have played in the Grace Shield Under-19 competition with centuries in this year’s Under-16 competition.

Kimani Wilson has two centuries to his name and has scored over 300 runs in the competition, while George Seymour has one century and has scored over 250 runs. Former national Under-15 player, Captain Kirk McKenzie, with scores of two 90s to his name, has scored over 250 runs, and they are all expected to carry the bulk of the scoring.

His bowling department is expected to rest heavily on the shoulders of off- spinner McKenzie who has taken over 30 wickets in the competition, with support to come from off-spinners Wilson and Nicholas Lewin.

Meanwhile, Sean Newell, coach of Calabar, said that their main objectives right now is to avenge one of two defeats handed to his team by St George’s College.

The ‘light blues’ from North Street defeated Calabar in the 19 and under GraceKennedy Shield, and also the T20 competitions this season.

“We are not looking for a third-straight defeat by one team, so the players are well prepared to end their dominance over us,” Newell said.

Newell noted that the team’s strength lies in their batting, as “we have a number of batsmen capable of scoring runs and we are looking for those performances from our main batsmen”.

The Calabar coach will look to national Under-15 batsman and Captain Bryan Brown, who has scored over 300 runs, including a century; all-rounder Shemar Davis with over 150 runs and 15 wickets; Sachin Simms with over 200 runs; and Kobie Henry with over 150 runs, to be the key players among the runs.

Meanwhile, Simms, with over 29 wickets, is expected to be his trump card with his right-arm off spinners, along with left-arm spinner Shemar Davis, off-spinner Jayson Davis who has taken over 15 wickets, and right-arm medium fast bowler Travis McMain to do the work in the bowling department.