THE Sandals/Costley Construction-sponsored St Mary T20 Blast is to bowl off today with two exciting matches scheduled for Mango Valley Oval in the parish.

The competition features six teams divided into two zones, with zonal teams playing each other twice. The top two from each zone will advance to the semi-finals

Zone 1 comprises Buff Bay United, the guest team; Boscobel; and United All Stars. In Zone 2 are Gayle, Highgate and Mango Valley.

The feature match at 1:30 pm will pit highly fancied Boscobel against Buff Bay United from Portland while in the opening encounter, home team Mango Valley tackle much-favoured Highgate in a mouth-watering clash.

The Highgate team is bubbling with confidence as they boast the likes of St Mary parish representatives Darrien Walker and Gihon Murdock. Mango Valley, meanwhile, is expected to include Jamaica Under-17 representatives Jordan Pinnock and Aaan Ennis — two of the parish’s most exciting young prospects.

In the feature match Boscobel should start slight favourites with the return of former Jamaica Under-19 stalwart Tyrone Daley, who recently completed a stint in league cricket in England where he had an outstanding season. The team will also include the likes of former West Indies Under-19 player Andel Gordon, and Tacky schoolboy Rojae Brown.

Buff Bay, however, are not expected to be walkovers as they have a talented team led by Leronne Tyrell, Howayne Hyatt and Dwight Hyatt.

“Cricket lovers in the parish of St Mary are really looking forward to the start of the competition,” said an upbeat Junior Matison, the first vice-president of St Mary Cricket Association.

“We had to push back the start of the competition due to Tacky High School players participating in a competition but now that they are back, it’s all systems go.

“The season has been drawing a lot of attention due to the emphasis on young players, and we expect strong support from our cricketing fraternity,” he said.

Third vice-president of St Mary Cricket Association, Carlos Francis lauded the return of perennial Sandals Resorts and Costley Construction as title sponsors, and urged the players to focus on keeping a high level of discipline.