Tony Becca

AFTER EIGHT weeks of action between the rain drops, the Jamaica Cricket Association's Super Cup all-island competition comes to an end this weekend with St. Elizabeth and Melbourne face to face at Melbourne Oval in a battle for the title and the $500,000 first prize.

After eight matches each, St Elizabeth are on 29 points, Melbourne, 26, and with Manchester back in third place on 21, with only six points for a victory, the show-down is between St. Elizabeth and Melbourne for the Cup and the accompanying booty.

The question is: Will it be St. Elizabeth or will it be Melbourne?

Melbourne, boastingprobably the best batting team in the country despite the absence of Marlon Samuels and Donovan Pagon, are good enough to take first innings points from St. Elizabeth.

With a lead of three points, however, and with three points for a first innings lead, and one for the team that trails on first innings in a drawn match, and with the match lasting only two days, the odds must be on St. Elizabeth to walk away with the Cup.

For Melbourne to win the Cup, they will have to do more than lead St. Elizabeth on first innings - they will have to win the match.

And they can. In fact, but for the presence of Shawn Findlay and Wayne Simpson in the St. Elizabeth line-up, they should, and for the following reasons.

Winning ways

The first reason is that while St. Elizabeth, who were hardly affected by the rain, dropped first innings points to Kingston CC and to Manchester in two drawn matches, Melbourne failed to win at least first innings points from only two matches when rain ruined their engagements with St. Catherine and Manchester.

The second reason is that while Manchester failed to get to 300 runs in any innings this season and scored only two centuries, Melbourne, with scores of 456 for seven declared against Trelawny, 440 versus the Jamaica Defence Force, 360 for nine against Kensington, and 403 for six declared in the second innings against Westmoreland, hopped past the mark on four occasions while scoring six centuries.

Among the other reasons for Melbourne holding some good cards are the facts that apart from their number-one batsman and their number one bowler; apart from the left-handed Findlay, who boasts the competition's best aggregate of 511 runs; apart from offspinner Simpson, who boasts the competition's most wickets with 33, St. Elizabeth fall short of Melbourne on the list of individual performance.

For St. Elizabeth, Shane Powell, their number-two batsman, has a total of 261 runs at an average of 23.70; Damion Ebanks, their number three, has a record of 222 runs at an average of 20.20 and Howard Powell, their number four, a record of 222 runs at an average of 22.20.

For Melbourne, it is Baugh at the top with 380 at 76.00. He is, however, followed by Andre McCarty with 375 at 46.90, by Yanick Elliott with 304 at 33.80 and by Damion Henry with 255 at 28.30.

As far as the bowling department is concerned, while Simpson, with 33 wickets at an average of 15.48, is followed by pacer Ainsley Goss with 19 at 20.05 and offspinner Powell with 16 at 14.81, Melbourne's top four are off-spinner Elliott with 21 at 15.14, legspinner Damion Jacobs with 19 at 17.21, pacer Sheldon Smith with 17 at 15.35 and left-arm pacer Leon Bent with 14 at 22.07.

Start as favourites

Result for result, man for man, Melbourne, the number one in the land when it comes to winning titles and who, therefore, know how to win, appear in with a chance of beating the odds, winning the match and pocketing the title and the cash - especially so remembering that St. Elizabeth were routed for 99 by Manchester and after hanging on to stay in the lead, finished at 91 for seven to defeat JDF by three wickets in their last outing.

Apart from the fact that they must be riding high because of their three-point lead, apart from the memory of their victory over Melbourne at home last season, St. Elizabeth, and especially so because of Findlay and Simpson, must, however, start favourites, if not to win first innings points or even the match, to walk away with the title.

Who will it be? One thing is sure, the match at Melbourne Oval should provide some fireworks and a fitting climax to the nation's top cricket competition.