CUL DE SAC--The NAGICO Cricket Club, known for its strong cricketing legacy is slated to go up against the WINAIR Conquerors Cricket Club in a virtual semi-final showdown in the Prime Pepsi Cup at Caribe Lumber Ballpark on Sunday.
This showdown will put NAGICO's legacy as a championship team on the line after at least three consecutive tournaments without a winner's trophy. NAGICO has made it to many finals locally and won. However, with the advent of the Future Champs A and now the B&C Spartans, the balance has slowly been turning in the direction of the youthful and more cricket disciplined Spartans.
The seasoned NAGICO players in Keith Carty, Stephen Evans and Cornelius Duprie are still left to orchestrate big plays, while Romain Doodnauth, Captain Lionel Ritchie, Dwayne Elgin and Garfield Solomon have been in the midst of up-and-down fortunes.
The team did not qualify for the last 50 over final which makes Sunday's contest a crucial match for the team's history. The talented but infrequent off spinner in Asa Edwards is key to the local insurance giant winning this match. He has guile, is well crafted and could skittle out opponents.
The Conquerors team is not known for playing spin bowling well. The captain in Lerry Baptiste has already complained about the inconsistent batting performance of his team and will be looking for an improvement from his players.
Opening batsmen Raphael Baptiste and Kurt Manners are yet to combine for an opening stand of more than 20 and to make matters even worse, none has gotten more than 25 runs in any of the three matches played. Look out for Baptiste who often saves his best for these crunch matches.
Conqueror's overseas players are Joel Simmons and Merlin Liburd of Nevis. But, they are only allowed to play with one. The better choice in this situation could be Liburd who is level headed and usually scores heavily against big teams. Simmons is more of an impetuous ball-beater who on his day could demoralize any bowler attack but off late that has been happening too infrequently.
Both teams will be busy looking to throw the knock out punch early. The new ball bowlers will be severely tested. Although, NAGICO will feel they have two better skilled opening bowlers in Nevisian Tonito Willet and local speedster Joel Brown in comparison to Romel Haynes and Delon Jeffrey for Conquerors.
Conquerors have a heavy fan base that usually comes from the French side. They could get extremely boisterous; especially when their team is in front.
The match is slated to start at 9:30 and if Conquerors bring their A-Game, a heart pounding contest will unfold.
