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Excelsior, Innswood face off in Grace Shield final

Published:Monday | April 9, 2018 | 12:00 AMJermaine Lannaman

Former champions Excelsior High School and Innswood High School will square-off in the final of the three-day urban area ISSA/Grace Shield Under-19 Cricket Championship at the Melbourne Oval on Tuesday.

The duo, who between them boast several national youth players, including Windies Under-19 batting all-rounder Jevour Royal, are set to lock horns starting at 10am.
Excelsior, who won the title in 2016 and are favourites, entering the showdown, overcame in the semi-final playoffs the challenges of defending champions Papine High School, Kingston College and Campion College.

Three-time champions Innswood, in the meantime, got the better of St George's College, Calabar and St Jago in their semi-final playoffs.

"It should be a very keenly contested game, as both team has several capable match-winners in their line-up," said Innswood coach Kirk Gordon, who guided his team to title honours in 2010, 2011 and 2012. "Also for us, it is the last year for Royal in school, and given that he was not apart of any of our previous championship winning teams, its his last chance to claim the title."

Innswood, located on the outskirts of Spanish Town, will in addition to Royal, will look to Jamaica Under-19 representative, Carlos Brown, and the leading wicket taker this season, left-arm spinner Kevin Peterson.

The Kirkland Bailey-conditioned Excelsior, in the meanwhile, will be hoping for outstanding performances national Under-19 batsmen Kirk McKenzie and Ramon Senior.