The Lauderhill MAQ-T20 Night Cricket Tournament promises to get really interesting when the semi-final round gets underway this Saturday at the Lauderhill Sports Complex. Two newcomers, Team USA and World XI will do battle for a shot at the finals in the curtain raiser at 5:00 pm. In the other semi-final, India will go up against the home team Lauderhill at 8:00 pm.

Team USA, playing for the first time in the MAQ-T20 Tournament proved that they belong as they went through the tournament with only one loss, which came against Trinidad and Tobago when they suffered a 64 runs defeat. On Saturday they will look to Shawn Beckford, Dave Wallace, Sheldon Irving, and Hensworth Wallace to shore up their batting; and in the bowling department Adrian Carey, Andre Forbes, Rhaines Boothe, and Donavon Samuels.

Equal to their opponent World XI in their maiden entrant to the tournament only loss came at the hands of former seven-time champions – Team Jamaica. Their game against India (another semi finalist) was abandoned due to rain. Their batting attack will be led by Roy Weeks, Neil Mungal, and Rajat Verma and their bowling assault should come from Khurran Shaukat, Waseem Shehzada, and Mohammed Hussain.

Meanwhile, India playing at a high level should start as favorites against the formidable Lauderhill. Team India advanced to the finals with a record of three wins and the beneficiary of two abandoned games. Their most convincing win was against the Leeward Islands when they set a tournament record having two batsmen scoring a century in the same innings – Sandip Deasi 115, and Vibhav Nayar 146, who they will no doubt look to for support this Saturday. They won the game by an unheard of 205 runs. Sunail Nair and Sai Ramesh should compliment the two centurians in the team’s batting while Nalikanth, Suhakanth Jammula and Pranay Tigga should shore up their bowling.

Lauderhill on the other hand came into the semi-finals by the narrowest of margin with a record of two wins, two no results (abandoned) and one loss. They nipped out Trinidad and Tobago to gain a place in the semi-finals as both teams finish the regular season with the same record. However, one of Lauderhill's victims was Trinidad during the regular season thus making Lauderhill the fourth qualifying team. Lauderhill batting will be bolstered by one of the tournament’s four centurians, Kenroy Wright along with Nicholas Mittoo, Victor Charles, Peter Anthony, and Dwayne Nathaniel. While in the bowling it will be left up to Virgil Francis, Glen Anglin, and Prem Singh.

The finals will be played on Saturday, June 5th at 7 pm at the same venue.