Dominant Rose Hall Town Gizmos and Gadgets (RHTGG) will battle Young Warriors Cricket Club (YWCC) in the final of the Berbice Cricket Board Ivan Madray 100-ball tournament today in last match 2018.
Both teams have had mixed fortunes ahead of their 13.30 hours clash at the Port Mourant Cricket Club Ground with RHTGG winning five tournaments so far and a revived YWCC losing twice in the finals to this very side.
Ahead of the showdown, Stabroek News caught up with the two captains of the familiar foes who spoke about the match.
YWCC’s leader, Suresh Dhanai explained that the team is now recovering after being dismantled but have worked hard to reach the finals of each tournament they took part in and is expected to be boosted with the return of West Indies’ batsman Shimron Hetmyer.
Dhanai recalled that while it would be good to have him in the side, the team is also without Kassim Khan but has equally done well with the other guys stepping up in their absence, noting the likes of Alex Algoo who he will look to get them off to a good start.
In the bowling department, the 24-year-old captain will lead from the front with left arm seamer, Devindra Ramoutar, off spinner Ishwar Singh and left arm orthodox Trevon Stanislaus in the mix.
The seamer said they are comfortable chasing, having restricted teams to low totals but is capable of producing big totals recalling 152 against Blairmont at the same venue of the finals which was the highest first round score of the tournament.
However, Dhanai noted that their fielding has not been up to par and is something they have worked on with light sessions during the holiday. He gave the example of bowling out a team for 132 but spilled four vital catches.
Looking at their opponents, Dhanai said they are doing well and are one, if not the most dominant sides in the county with their senior players stepping up. He singled out Kevlon Anderson as one of the players they will pay specific attention to since he is a capable batsman as well as Clinton Pestano who was the man to destroy them in the previous final with a five wicket haul.
Meanwhile, Shawn Pereira who has led RHTGG to six titles this year stated that it is going to be an exciting finals with the calibre of players in the YWCC side, predicting competitive cricket from both teams.
History is on the side of RHTGG with two wins in the finals over YWCC and their captain said he is hoping to come out strong as they did in the previous two matches.
The former national youth captain mentioned his side has a good mix of players with a lot of them playing for Guyana at both junior and senior side. With the inclusion of Pestano and Eon Hooper as well as Anderson and Kevin Sinclair, they will look to take the game by the scruff of the neck.
Looking at improvements, Pereira elaborated that they will look to improve on their partnership building methods, suggesting that with healthy partnerships the runs will flow naturally while indicating that they will look to cap off a good year of cricket with another title.
Both captains expressed an importance of converting ones to twos and twos to threes having seen the large outfield of the Port Mourant Ground and the hard surface it is known for.
