By Anthony Foster, Gleaner WriterJamaica's young cricketers will put behind them their fifth place finish in the one-day version of the TCL Group/West Indies Under-19 competition when they face Rest of Americas (ROA) in the three-day competition starting today at Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) in Guyana.
In other games, Guyana face Leeward Islands at Everest, Barbados take on Canada at Enmore and in a repeat of Sunday's one-day final, Windward Islands tackle Trinidad & Tobago at Bourda.
Despite the ordinary performance in the one day games, Junior Bennett expressed the view that the players improved with each match. "They are coping much better and with the slow-paced pitches now," said Bennett.
After a bad start, the coach said "they seem to be settling down better now". In their last match, Jamaica led by senior batsman Xavier Marshall, 85, and an undefeated 57 from Chadwick Walton chalked this season's highest total, 269 for six, to beat Canada by 186 runs.
BETTER PERFORMANCE
With the improved form shown in the last two games Bennett is expecting much better in the three-day version of the game.
"I expect a better performance," the coach of many years told The Gleaner. Jamaica should start big favourites against ROA, made up of players from Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Argentina, especially with top batsman Marshall finding form. Marshall and captain Simon Jackson will be looking to give Jamaica a good start, and may not have any problems in doing so against Justin Robinson, who picked up all three wickets the last time both teams met.
The coaching staff's only concern should be when former West Indies Under-15 player Howard Powell, Donovan Sinclair and Andre Hall will hit form. However, wicketkeeper batsman Walton, who got a half century in the last match along with in-form Jamie Trenchfield and Krishmar Santokie down the order, should back them up.
The bowling attack will be Jamaica's strength, Santokie with 15 wickets in the one-dayers, spinners Gavin Wallace, Alton Beckford, Powell and Marshall, along with either pacers Boris Hutchinson or Oral Rankine should prove too dangerous for ROA batting, which failed to get past 150.
