BRIDGETOWN (CMC):

JAMAICA AND the Leeward Islands will square off at Lester Vaughan School when the TCL Group West Indies Youth (Under-19) Challenge moves into the second round today.

The Leewards suffered a major setback over the weekend when their outstanding fast bowler, Kelbert Walters, was ruled out of the tournament with a side strain.

The Jamaicans, led by centuries from Kennar Lewis (106) and John Ross-Campbell (100 not out) and a five-wicket haul from left-arm spinner Patrick Harty, looked good when topping Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) on first innings at Banks Brewery in the first round.

Entering today's second-round matches, Barbados and Guyana lead with 12 points, followed by Jamaica, who earned six first-innings points from their drawn match against T&T (three) at Banks Brewery.

Title-holding Guyana will start favourites when they tackle bottom-of-the-table Windward Islands at the Combermere High School.

Low-scoring affair

Led by Eugene La Fleur, the young Guyanese cricketers defeated the Leeward Islands by five wickets in their opening match in a low-scoring affair at Kensington Oval on Sunday.

Guyana won the fixture when they chased 134 runs to win.

Title-chasing Barbados, without an U-19 league title since the TCL Group took up the sponsorship in 2003, will come up against T&T at Kensington Oval.

The Barbadians were impressive in their seven-wicket win against the Windwards at the 3Ws Oval.

Led by Kyle Corbin, Barbados looked the part as they over-whelmed their opponents with a strong batting performance from Rashidi Boucher, who notched an unbeaten 96, with good support from their bowlers, including two four-wicket hauls, in the Windwards' second innings by Dario Cummins and Shad Simmons.

T&T will depend on left-handed opening batsman Evin Lewis, who scored a century on debut, and skipper Adrian Barath to lay the foundation for a huge total.