Desperate St Elizabeth tackle tough Clarendon

Jermaine Lannaman, Gleaner Writer

Daren Powell, captain of St Elizabeth, says his team is ready for their do-or-die Group B clash against Clarendon in today's fifth and final set of matches, in the preliminary round of the Jamaica Cricket Association Captain's Bakery Limited-Overs Championship.

The match, which will take place at the Manley Horne Park in St Elizabeth, will see Powell and his charges trying to get the better of Clarendon, as both teams jostle for one of the championship's two remaining quarter-final round spots.

The teams to qualify thus far are defending champions St Ann and Westmoreland from Group A, St Catherine Cricket Club from Group B, Kingston from Group C, and Melbourne and Kingston and St Andrew CA from Group D.

must-win situation

"It's a tricky one, based on the fact of the must-win situation that we've put ourselves in," said Powell, who will have alongside him sidelined West Indies players Jerome Taylor, Shawn Findlay and Brenton Parchment.

"Though we have not been playing that well, we still have a pretty strong team, and if the wicket is good for strokeplay I give ourselves a strong chance of coming out on top," he declared.

Clarendon, who lost of the services of Krishmar Santokie earlier last week due to West Indies duties, stand a better chance of qualifying than St Elizabeth, as at the moment they are second in the group behind qualifiers St Catherine CC.

St Catherine have 10 points, four more than Clarendon, while G.C. Foster College have four and St Elizabeth three.

In order for St Elizabeth to qualify, they will not only have to beat Clarendon, but beat them big as well, given that at present the latter have a better run rate, and hope that St Catherine Cricket Association defeat G.C. Foster at Spanish Town Prison Oval.

other top match

The day's other top matchup will see the Jamaica Defence Force taking on Police at Up Park Camp, as they both battle to join Kingston as qualifiers from the group.

The JDF, led by player-coach Wayne Cuff, Sheldon Cotterell and new recruit Dennis Bulli, are at present on six points, while Police, St Mary and St Thomas all have three.

St Mary will play away to St Thomas at Eden Park in the day's other encounter.

"We have a lot of confidence, as two weeks ago against a star-studded Kingston nobody expected us to win, and we performed really well," said Cuff.

"We started off slowly, but the momentum has started to build and, hopefully, it can carry us to the quarter-finals and beyond," he added.

In other matches, Westmoreland will host St Ann and Kensington will play away to Melbourne.