The third and final unofficial four-day ‘Test’ match between Windies A team and England Lions begins Monday at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground, North Sound Antigua with the hosts looking for a third consecutive victory for a series sweep.
Windies A won the first match at the Trelawny Multiplex by the slim margin of two wickets then took the second match at Sabina Park much easier by an innings and 17 runs and will be looking to maintain their dominance in the historic day/night encounter beginning Monday.
Keemo Paul who celebrated his 20th birthday last Wednesday is in line for a debut with the A team
Windies A will look to their new spin twin in Jomel Warrican and Rahkeem Cornwall to once again do the job with the ball to restrict their opponents. Left-arm spinner, Warrican has 20 wickets so far in the series with a best of 8 for 34 coming in the second match at Sabina Park while Cornwall has 14 victims.
With the bat, Shane Dowrich who scored a match-winning 119 in the first ‘Test’ is the Regional side’s leading run scorer while Jahmar Hamilton (100 runs) and Raymon Reifer (104 runs) are in good form after their good showing in the second match. Captain Kieran Powell has shown some form as well with 89 runs in three innings including 59 at Sabina Park where the Windies made 422 in their lone innings.
The home team may make some changes to their squad to give other players exposure including left-handed batsman Vishaul Singh who missed the second match and Keemo Paul who was brought in as a replacement for the injured Miguel Cummins.
The Lions on the other hand will look to bounce back to save some pride with a victory before the three-match 50-Over series which begins on March 6 at the Coolidge Cricket ground also in Antigua.
For the visitors who were out played in all departments, Matthew Leach is their leading bowler with 14 victims while Liam Livingstone has six scalps. With the bat, so far they are unable to put together big scores. Paul Coughlin is their leading batsman with 118 runs while Keaton Jennings (97 runs), Joe Clarke (94 runs), Haseeb Hameed (93 runs) and Nick Gubbins (92 runs) have gotten starts without carrying on.
The pink ball is expected to move a bit more under lights and the toss could be critical on a pitch where the batting friendly condition is expected to prevail throughout the match.
This is the first time that the Windies A team will be involved in a day/night ‘Test’ which makes the contest much more interesting. The first ball is at 14:30h.
