p style=”text-align: justify;”>The T&T Red Force will be looking for an improved showing today, when they come up against the Leewards in their second match of the WICB Professional Cricket League (PCL) at Warner Park in St Kitts.
Rayad Emrit’s men had an indifferent match in their opening game against Barbados Pride at the Queen’s Park Oval. They were outplayed and got away with a draw because of the rain which washed out most of the final day’s play. Leewards travelled to Guyana and received a beating by an an innings and ten runs at the Guyana National Stadium.
Prior to the Red Force departure for St Kitts, Emrit said his team was lucky to get away with the draw and was looking forward to a much improved performance. “We were lucky that the rain came down, God smiled on us but we need to put in an improved performance immediately. We are capable of doing a lot better than what we showed here.”
Red Force will again be without the services of the experienced Ramnaresh Sarwan. He has been replaced by the hard hitting wicketkeeper batsman Nicholas Pooran. Emrit called improvement in the team’s all round play.
“The young players on the team are showing good ability and we the seniors need to come good and get the job done,” he said.
The Leewards have been struggling for the last few years and T&T Red Force will start as favourites at the small Warner Park facility.
Rain may again play a part as the weather has not been great over the past few days and it is predicted to continue over the weekend.
The pitch is flat and good for batting and with the short boundaries the batsmen will be lining up to take a knock. Red Force wicketkeeper/batsman Denesh Ramdin will have fond memories of this ground, having struck 167 against Bangladesh in a limited overs clash earlier this season.
In the other two games today, Guyana Jaguars play Windwards Volcanoes at the Guyana National Stadium and Barbados Pride battle the Jamaica Franchise at Windward Sports Club. All matches will have a 10am start except the Guyana/Windwards clash which gets underway at 9.30am due to early fading light in Guyana.