Red Force aim to leapfrog Jaguars

THE TT Red Force are hoping to leapfrog the Guyana Jaguars today, with a victory in the final round of Group A in the Cricket West Indies Regional Super50 tournament.

Red Force are second on 25 points and Jaguars led the standings with 27 points. Both teams have the same record of five wins, one loss and one no result from seven matches. Jaguars led the standings by two points after earning more bonus points than Red Force. Both Jaguars and Red Force have confirmed spots in the semifinals, which will be played in Barbados on Thursday and Friday.

Red Force will play last-placed Canada at the Queen’s Park Oval, St Clair from 9 am, today, weather permitting. The match was supposed to start at 2 pm, but Canada are leaving Trinidad tonight. The Red Force match against West Indies B at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba was abandoned because of rain on Friday.

The Canadians gave Red Force a scare the first time they played each other in the tournament. Canada posted 207 for seven in 50 overs batting first, before Red Force limped to 208/8 in 40.4 overs at the Queen’s Park Oval on October 7.

The Jaguars will play West Indies B at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, Tarouba from 2 pm, today. If Red Force win and Jaguars lose, Red Force will win Group A.

Red Force leg spinner Imran Khan led the way for Red Force in the last match they played. In a 38-overs-per-side match against Windward Islands Volcanoes, Khan took 3/13 in four overs to help dismiss Volcanoes for 78 in 22.1 overs. Red Force raced to 83/3 in 9.4 overs.

Speaking to Newsday yesterday, Khan said he tries to grab his chance when he gets to play on the quality Red Force team.

“Any time I get the opportunity I just try to make the best use of it, knowing the international players are all available and the team is very hard to pick,” Khan said.

The Red Force have only lost one match for the season, but Khan said the team can’t relax.

“The season has been a good one for us so far. We qualified for the semifinals, so it is one game at a time now. It is not a time to get complacent or take any team for granted. We have to keep doing what we have been doing and train hard and try to be successful as a team.” This is the first time in a number of years the Red Force have had all their top players available, including Lendl Simmons, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Denesh Ramdin, and the Bravo brothers Dwayne and Darren.

The TT leg spinner knows the team must take advantage of this opportunity. Khan said, “It has been four or five years all of us have not played together as a team. I think everybody is really hungry for this title and we are working hard for it, and I think that is our main goal, to be the original Red Force team.”

Most of the Red Force are in their early to mid-30s, and Khan said they would have grown up playing cricket together.