Jaguars face bottom-of-the-table Canada today

Oct 09, 2018 Sports

Leon Johnson will be hoping for an outstanding tournament and World Cup pick.

Navneet Dhaliwal has scored 2 fifties in the tournament so far.

Chris Barnwell would hope to continue his good form with bat and ball.

Chanderpaul Hemraj hopes for another big innings before he leaves for India.

By Sean Devers in Trinidad
In association with Vnet, Regal,
Noble House Seafoods & Cascadia Hotel

Guyana and Canada have met on four previous occasions in Regional 50-over cricket with Guyana winning every time and today at the Brain Lara Academy these teams meet again from 14:00hrs in a Day/Night encounter in the Regional Super50 tournament.
The Canadians will hope that their spinners can give them their first win in three matches in this tournament against a team fresh off an emphatic nine-wicket win on Sunday night against the West Indies ‘B’.
While the Jaguars lost their opening game to pre-tournament favourites Trinidad Red Force, Canada, who played the first International match against the USA in 1844 which they won by 23 runs, have lost by 10 runs to WI ‘B’, by 73 runs to Volcanoes and two wickets to the Red Force.
On Sunday the 25-year-old Chanderpaul Hemraj justified his selection to Windies ODI team by joining centurions Chris Gayle, Devon Smith and Marlon Samuels with a brilliant unbeaten 103 and will want to get another big score in what could be his last match before he leaves for India.
Trevon Griffith has looked good in both of his innings without going on and could do that tonight as will Skipper Leon Johnson who could be a few outstanding innings away from regaining his Windies place, especially since there is a leadership crisis in the Region.
Chris Barnwell picked up from where he left off in the last tournament with a top notch unbeaten fifty, while Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd, Raymon Reifer, Anthony Bramble and Clinton Pestano are all capable of big scores on what should be a good track and fast outfield.
If there is any change to the side Ricardo Adams, who could also bat, could replace Veerasammy Permaul who has been expensive.
Pestano bowls with pace and control and has 4-58 from 16 overs and could share the new ball with left-armer Reifer, while Barnwell, who is the most economical in the team, Shepherd and Rutherford gives the Jaguars a potent five-prang pace attack.
The spin should be taken care of by Off-Spinner Ramaal Lewis, who has bowled frugal spells and Adams (if he plays), while Hemraj is also a spin option as is Griffith and Johnson.
Canada’s batting will weigh heavily on Rodrigo Thomas, who has 123 runs with two fifties, their leading run scorer Navneet Dhaliwal whose highest score is 80, Harsh Thaker who has an unbeaten 51 and Nitish Kumar.
David Jacobs, Nikhil Dutta and Srimantha Wijeyeratne who also reached a half-century are expected to contribute runs tonight, while Romesh Don (9 wkts), Salman Nazar, Cecil Pervez, Sukhdeep Brar and Dutta will have the task of restricting the formidable Jaguars’ batting line-up on the best pitch in the Trinidad Zone.
The Jaguars had a light training session yesterday in Port-of-Spain, while in the other match today defending champions Windwards Volcanoes face West Indies ‘B’ at the Queen’s Park Oval from 14:00hrs.