Parkites, Merry Boys meet in rescheduled final today

The final was originally carded to be played on Sunday at the same venue, but rain forced the match to be postponed. Queen’s Park are the defending 50-over champions while Merry Boys won the T20 title earlier this season.

The Parkites lost by two wickets to Central Sports in the quarterfinals of the T20 tournament. However, Queen’s Park coach David Furlonge said his players are focused ahead of today’s match. Furlonge said, “We know what it takes to win. The T20 was just a bad game that we had, you don’t have a chance to come back in a T20 game. The fellas more hungry for it now, we showed it against PowerGen in the (50-over) semifinals.” Queen’s Park crushed Powergen by 232 runs in the semifinals. The Parkites posted 365 for four, before restricting Powergen for 133/9 as spin bowler Kavesh Kantasingh was unable to bat for PowerGen.

Furlonge said, “All we need is two batsmen to fire for us. We have a long batting line up, and we just need two or three batsmen to get off and that should carry us into the 300 (region) once we bat first.

President of Merry Boys Patrick Rampersad believes the final will be a competitive contest and says his team are not favourites despite winning the T20 title. Rampersad said, “I wouldn’t say that we are favourites, but I would think that we have an opportunity just as Queen’s Park has. (Queen’s Park and Merry Boys) are the two clubs that are leading in everything in cricket in Trinidad and Tobago, in terms of the three different types of competition (T20, 50-over, three-day). I think we will start as equal partners in this match (today).” If Merry Boys win today the team can still complete the hat-trick this season. Rampersad said, “It is alive (to win the treble). It is kind of an outside chance, but it is still alive.

There is one or two scenarios that must take place, and if that happens we have a good chance of winning.”