A BATTLE between bat and ball!
The key factor in today’s Sagicor General Super Cup cricket final is whether Tele Barbados Carlton’s strong battling line-up, led by West Indies players Dale Richards and Lendl Simmons, can overcome BNB St Catherine’s bowling, spearheaded by spin twins Derick Bishop and Kenroy Williams.
Today’s title contest should be exciting. The 50-over-per-innings affair starts at 9:30 a.m. at Kensington Oval where there is usually some bounce and pace for the fast bowlers – even though neither side can boast of a genuinely quick bowler.
Both teams seem to like to bat last and it won’t be surprising that whoever wins the toss would insert the opposition.
It will be an eighth final appearance for Carlton, who have only won the title twice, in 1989 and 2009. Ironically, their first triumph was against St Catherine by a mere four runs.
St Catherine, who are appearing in their sixth final, won the last of their three titles in 1996, when former Barbados fast bowler Dayne Maynard returned the best ever bowling figures in a final of six for 18 against BET.
It seems like a case of déjà vu as Maynard, who was 27 years old at the time, was not invited to national trials.
This time, his captain, Bishop, the tournament’s most economical bowler with 12 wickets at an economy rate of 2.43 runs per over, has not found favour with the selectors in a 34-member squad announced on Friday for next month’s regional one-day tournament.
Kenroy Williams – another player the national selectors have ignored over the past two seasons despite his strong all-round performances – has been the key to St Catherine’s march to the final for the second straight year.
He has scored 199 runs at an average of 66.33 with unbeaten knocks of 85 and 60 in two of his team’s preliminary victories. But his off-spin bowling (ten wickets at 13.20 runs each and an economy rate of 2.69 runs an over) will be a key factor.
It’s left to be seen whether St Catherine follow Empire’s failed semi-final ploy of opening the bowling with spin in an attempt to restrict the free-scoring Richards, the only batsman ever to score a double century in this tournament.
Richards’ partner is likely to be 21-year-old stroke-maker Richard Greaves. This pair should be followed at No. 3 by Simmons, who was a stand-out for the West Indies in post-2011 World Cup One-Day Internationals against Pakistan and India.
Left-handers Kirk Gibson and Kyle Mayers, the exciting Barbados and West Indies Under-19 all-rounder; hard-hitting wicket-keeper/batsman Carlo Morris and coach/player Shirley Clarke will round off the middle order.
The team will be without Vonrick Nurse – their 2009 batting hero with a century in the 2009 final – who is in England.
Carlton also have two good spinners in left-armer Dane Currency and overlooked Barbados one-day off-spinner Marlon Graham, who are both ideally suited for the limited-overs format.
Currency, who destroyed ICBL Empire in the semis with the fine figures of six for 40, has an economy rate of 4.07, while Graham (economy rate 4.42) has not been as stingy as he usually is with just four wickets but he is a clever campaigner, especially with the new ball.
Carlton’s depth in batting is exemplified by the averages of their late middle and lower order. Clarke (71.00) has been dismissed only once. Springer, whose bowling has been below-par with a 5.77 economy rate, is averaging 69 from his two innings, and Graham is yet to be dismissed in gathering 62 runs from three innings.
With Mayers – who had an average of 95 from his two innings before going to Guyana for the regional youth tournament – returning, Carlton will have to decide which player from the semi-final to omit.
All-rounder Adrian Caddle has chipped in with bat and ball, scoring a half-century while he has been on target with his slow medium bowling, taking six wickets at 12.33 to be Carlton’s most economical bowler at 3.36 runs an over.
Former Barbados Under-19 seamer Amal Nurse could be the one to make room for Mayers, who would have the distinction of playing a final with his father Shirley Clarke.
Apart from Williams, St Catherine will look to pacer-cum-opening- batsman Maynard for a rousing start.
Against YMPC he flayed West Indies fast bowler Fidel Edwards, and in the semi-final he hoisted Pickwick’s Test off-spinner Shane Shillingford for a couple of sixes.
Former Barbados batsman Ahmed Proverbs will be looking to rough up the Carlton bowling in his usual attacking manner. But St Catherine will be hoping that wicketkeeper/batsman Patrick Browne, who comes into the final with 157 runs (average 38.75) would stabilize the middle order, if needed, along with Williams, who has three centuries in this tournament.
All-rounder Joel Leacock is yet to repeat his outstanding performances from last year, while swing bowler Ulric Batson is an underrated cricketer.
So too is lanky off-spinner Stefan Gooding, the leading bowler in the unfinished 2010 tournament, who could be the surprise element in the attack.
Squads
Carlton (from) – Khalid Springer (captain), Dale Richards, Richard Greaves, Lendl Simmons, Kirk Gibson, Carlo Morris, Kyle Mayers, Adrian Caddle, Shirley Clarke (coach/player), Marlon Graham, Amal Nurse, Dane Currency, Dawayne Sealy, Alex Bridgeman; manager: Wayne Springer St Catherine (from) – Derick Bishop (captain), Dayne Maynard, Ronaldo Kellman, Chad Proverbs, Ahmed Proverbs, Patrick Browne, Kenroy Williams, Joel Leacock, Ulric Batson, Stefan Gooding, Michael Holder, Chad Puckerin, Renaldo Rudder, Stephen Byer; coach: Thelston Payne; manager: Lionel Blades.
