Kingston look to capitalise on Melbourne's absentees

Jermaine Lannaman, Gleaner Writer

Melbourne and Kingston will today square off at Melbourne Oval in the feature game of quarter-final matches in the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) Captain's Bakery Limited-Overs Championship.

Melbourne, last year's beaten finalist, will look to Nikita Miller, Yannick Elliott, in-form Damion Jacobs, Sadiki Bolt and Andre McCarthy; while Kingston will bank their hopes on captain Simon Jackson, Chadwick Walton, Boris Hutchinson and Andrew Richardson.

"Playing against Melbourne is always a challenge, but we are confident going into the encounter," said Jackson.

"They have lost a couple of senior players in Samuels and Baugh due to West Indies duties, while we still have all ours, and by virtue of this we are looking to capitalise," he added.

Mebourne's captain Elliott said his team was bracing for a tight contest.

"It should be an exciting game. Both of us have bowling as our strength, and it will be who plays the best cricket on the day," said Elliott.

"We just have to bring our 'A' game and take every chance that comes our way, as we have won the one-day title about six times in the past 10 years, and after falling short last year we want to make amends," he added.

Melbourne qualified for the round after topping Group C in the preliminaries ahead of surprise qualifiers Kingston and St Andrew, while Kingston advanced after finishing second in Group C behind the Jamaica Defence Force.

interesting matchup

In another interesting matchup, defending champions St Ann, with Xavier Marshall on board, will seek to make another step towards defending their title when they host another surprise semi-finalist, G.C. Foster College, at Ultimate Cricket Ground in St Ann.

In addition to Marshall, St Ann, who won Group A, will look to left-arm spinner Andre Dwyer, while G.C. Foster, who finished second in Group B, will look to on-loan Zeniffe Fowler, Jamie Merchant and Kirk Brooks to lead their charge.

Elsewhere, Group B winners St Catherine CC, with Tamar Lambert, Odean Brown and Bevon Brown in their line-up, will host Group A runners-up Westmoreland, who will have Derval Green and Vaniel Broomfield; while the Jamaica Defence Force, with Sheldon Cotterell and Dennis Bulli, will entertain Kingston and St Andrew at Up Park Camp.