Manchester High Head Coach Barry Barnes is expecting a keen contest when his team welcomes Mandeville-based neighbours May Day High for the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) Super 8 Twenty20 (T20) cricket match on Saturday.

The Zone B encounter, scheduled to start 1:30 pm, is to follow the curtain-raiser between Excelsior High and Tacky High, which is set to begin 9:30 am.

Both Manchester and May Day began the Super 8 phase with first-round victories on Wednesday.

Manchester beat the all-island T20 defending champions Wolmer’s Boys’ by five wickets after racking up 134-5 in reply to 131-8.

May Day, who had a historic run to the Headley Cup final earlier this season, were dominant against St George’s College on Wednesday, racing to 44-2 after dismissing the North Street-based boys for 41.

“It’s a local derby, May Day have been playing good cricket and they advanced to the Headley Cup final for the very first time so they must be doing some good things,” Barnes said on the eve of the clash against May Day.

Though getting the better of May Day during preliminary stages of both the Headley Cup and the rural area T20 competition, Barnes urged against complacency.

“We defeated them, but it doesn’t mean we have the upper hand. There is a friendly rivalry between the boys on both teams so I expect them to come and play their A game,” he said.

May Day Principal Stanford Davis, an avid cricketer follower, conceded that Manchester have had their ticket, while noting there is added motivation to win given it would seal their semi-final berth.

“We want to give it our all because we want to reach to the next round. It’s a critical match for us and Manchester have been our bogey team, so we have to make sure we play well. Every match is a big match but this is critical… we want to secure our place in the semis,” he explained.

In other matches on Saturday, St Jago High take on schoolboy cricket kingpins St Elizabeth Technical at 9:30 am, and Wolmer’s Boys’ battle St George’s College at 1:30 pm. Both contests are scheduled for Melbourne Oval.

On Wednesday, St Jago lost to Tacky by 86 runs after only making 90-8 in reply to an impressive 176-3. In Wednesday’s other match, Excelsior fell to an agonising four-run defeat to St Elizabeth Technical after stumbling to 74-8 in reply to their opponents’ paltry 78 all-out.