Fight to the finish in regional champs, Red Force face Scorpions

THE top four teams in the 2024 West Indies Four-Day Regional Championship will all have their eyes on securing the title when the seventh and final round of action bowls off around the region on April 17.

The top four are separated by just 5.4 points, with the Windward Islands Volcanoes (90 points) leading the table ahead of a surging Barbados Pride (87.6 points) team. Defending champions Guyana Harpy Eagles (87.2 points) occupy third spot, with Leeward Islands Hurricanes (84.6 points) in fourth. Guyana end their campaign with a favourable fixture against the cellar-placed Combined Campuses and Collages (CCC), while Barbados will also fancy their chances against the seventh-placed West Indies Academy team.

The Leewards and Windwards will battle in an intriguing encounter at the Queen's Park Oval, St Clair.

The fifth-placed Trinidad and Tobago Red Force (72.8 ponts) will face the sixth-placed Jamaica Scorpions at Sabina Park in Jamaica, and their head coach David Furlonge is reflecting on what could have been.

"Mathematically, it would be difficult for us to win the title. But if you look at the points standings, what really affected us is the first game against Guyana," Furlonge told Newsday.

"Unfortunately, that abandoned first game brought us just two points, compared to a possible other 14 or 15 points. With those extra points, we could have possibly been atop the table right now."

Furlonge said his team's batting performances in their losses to Barbados and Leewards put a dent in their season. However, he was pleased by the application shown by his players in the 123-run win over CCC last week, and he heaped praises on his bowlers for taking 20 wickets on a "perfect batting wicket."

Furlonge's Red Force charges will aim to tame the Scorpions when the action gets underway from 11 am.