Front-runners and reigning champions Guyana Jaguars will look to runaway with the lead, when the WICB Professional Cricket League Regional 4-Day Tournament resumes today following the early-season break.
The Jaguars play outside of their home territory for the first time this season, travelling to Port of Spain, where they will face hosts and joint third-placed side T&T Red Force in a crucial fourth round match at Queen’s Park Oval.
It will be the first time that the Jaguars will be returning to the Queen’s Park Oval following their crushing defeat in the NAGICO Super50 Tournament last season.
Unlike that occasion, the home team is not stacked with a number of household names and so the visitors will enter the contest supremely confident, looking to continue in the rich vein that has made them the most successful side in the past two seasons.
The Jaguars clipped the wings of the Pride in the previous round, at the same time their opponents let things slip against the Scorpions. Complacency will be the only thing that Leon Johnson and company will have to resist, but the Jaguars have never given the impression that this is something which embeds itself in the way they operate.
The Red Force in the hope of finding the right combination to keep their season on course and fulfill the unenviable task of trying to slow the Jags, have taken the usual step of declaring a squad of 15 ahead of the game – including experienced batsman Jason Mohammed as captain and little-known, uncapped player Strassark Shankar.
The Jaguars welcome the return of Christopher Barnwell and can revel in the very recent history of matches between the two sides which shows they won the corresponding fixture last year by an innings and 60 runs. Second-placed Jamaica Scorpions will try to keep the leaders within reach, when they host Leeward Islands Hurricanes while Windward Islands Volcanoes and Barbados Pride aim to get their seasons back on track when they meet in Grenada.
The Volcanoes got a boost with a sensational, eight-wicket victory over the Hurricanes inside two days in a low-scoring affair, at the same time that the Pride were sliding to a nine-wicket defeat against the Jags.
Volcanoes are further boosted by the return of Shane Shillingford as the only change to their line-up.
Teams
RED FORCE (from): Jason Mohammed (captain), Yannic Cariah, Bryan Charles, Narsingh Deonarine, Kyle Hope, Kavesh Kantasingh, Steven Katwaroo, Imran Khan, Utman Mohammed, Kjorn Ottley, Yannick Ottley, Marlon Richards, Strassark Sankar, Jeremy Solozano, Daniel St. Clair
JAGUARS (from): Leon Johnson (captain), Ronsford Beaton, Anthony Bramble, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Assad Fudadin, Shimron Hetmyer, Steven Jacobs, Keon Joseph, Gudakesh Motie, Veerasammy Permaul, Raymon Reifer, Vishaul Singh