Busta Semi: Enthralling end game in prospect (20 February 1999)

20 February 1999

Busta Semi: Enthralling end game in prospect

Garth Wattley

He will not have the benefit of Brian Lara's batting. But that is all. For it should be a full strength, fully confident Trinidad and Tobago team that faces Clayton Lambert's Guyana side at Guaracara Park this morning in the first regional Busta Cup semi-final.

Lara, troubled by a chipped bone above his right wrist, sustained during the third One-day International against South Africa last month, was yesterday ruled out of today's game.

There was still sufficient pain and discomfort for Lara to abandon the effort after only a couple minutes in the nets at the Queen's Park Oval. And Lara, with his captaincy of the West Indies team under intense scrutiny this weekend in Antigua, will be hoping at least that X-ray results reveal no long-term damage.

Lara apart, the other patients-openers Suruj Ragoonath (groin strain) and Daren Ganga (stiff back) and fastbowler Marlon Black (painful knee)-are all fit to play, according to coach Bryan Davis.

T&T should then be able to field an unchanged team, unless the selectors decide there is need for an extra spinner, in which case Avidesh Samaroo, whose left-arm wrist spin was passed over for the orthodox left-arm variety offered by Ken Hazel in the squad for the Leewards Islands match, could return to the first team. Samaroo is back in the squad in place of Hazel.

The matter of injury aside, Bishop will be looking to do the double on today's opponents. But at this knockout stage, the captain knows there can be no room for complacency against a Guyanese team still not up to full strength but with much greater depth than the one beaten by an innings in the first match of the season.

"It's cricket and if a team plays well and has a few blessings, they can win" Bishop said.

"So we're not going to underestimate them. It's very important to get to the final and win, very important for T&T cricket, very important for us as players. Our team goal is to win the Busta Cup," the skipper added.

The collective significance aside, nearly every member of the starting XI will be keen to enhance his season's record.

Form bowlers, Black (18 wickets including a hattrick) and off-spinner Mukesh Persad (21), have the chance to embellish already solid records.

The chance is also there for number three Dennis Rampersad (310 runs, average 44.28) to polish off a promising season with some heavy scoring, perhaps going past the 81 he scored against Guyana in the first match. This game also provides Daren Ganga with an opportunity to show what positive lasting impact his Test baptism has had on his game.

Opportunity also beckons for Guyana pacer Reon King, who played in the One-day leg of the ill-fated tour. King, left-arm spinner Neil McGarrell and leg-spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo will be the linchpins around which the Guyana attack will revolve. But the vast experience and know-how of skipper Lambert at the top of the batting order may be the key to how the visitors will fare the second time around.

So for the defending champions, it is do or die.

And if the challenging Trinis have their way, by Tuesday it will be the reigning kings who will be dead to the competition.

Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)