Jermaine Lannaman, Gleaner Writer

A David versus Goliath affair looms in the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) all-island limited overs knockout showdown between defending cham-pions Melbourne and Lucas at Derrymore Road.

Pitting together a star-studded Melbourne cast against a youthful, but talented Lucas, the match up is set to start at 9:30 a.m. and will be one of three matches on the day in what is a condensed version of the annual competition.

This year's competition has been reduced to five knockout rounds after the JCA introduced the Red Stripe Twenty20 Championship to the cricket calendar last month.

Other games

Other games on include surprise Twenty20 semi-finalists, Hanover, going up against St Elizabeth at Elgin Town, St Ann versus Super League champions Manchester at St Ann Bauxite, and Police against Kingston at Elletson Road.

First-round winners, Twenty20 champions St Catherine Cricket Club, St Catherine Cricket Association and Kensingston have all drawn byes this round and will resume play next week in quarter-finals.

At Melbourne, the home team led by hard-hitting Carlton Baugh Jr, Nikita Miller and Donovan Pagon are heavily favoured to get the better of Lucas, who will be led by Wayne Gayle.

The Lucas team also includes former Jamaica and West Indies junior representative Ryan Smith and national Under-19 batsman Ramon Senior.

"We are rebuilding the club with a lot of young players and talent. We made it to the second round of the Twenty20 competition and believe strongly that if we play well on the day, we can pull off an upset," said Lucas captain Gayle, whose team has fallen from grace and has been parading their skills in the second tier JCA Senior Cup for the past couple seasons.

"If we were to win this match and go far in this tournament it would do a lot for the club, which is down but not out," he added.

Chris Gayle uncertain

Gayle, the younger brother of West Indies and Jamaica star batsman, Chris, is also expressing uncertainty regarding the participation of his older brother, who has not represented the club for a while but is in top shape heading into next week's regional one-day tourna-ment in Guyana.

"We are not sure about him. He has still not confirmed as to whether or not he will be playing, but we are hopeful that he will," he added.

Baugh, in the meanwhile, says his team will not be taking Lucas lightly.

"We plan to take it like any other cricket game. Lucas over the years have always given us a fight and as such, despite the fact that they have not been as strong as they were before, we plan to treat them with respect," said Baugh, who will also look to in-form opener Jon-Ross Campbell and all-rounder Yannick Elliott for outstanding performances.