TITLE-HOLDERS Jamaica will hunt a fourth consecutive win in the 2013 Regional four-day tournament when they meet fierce rivals Trinidad & Tobago in a highly-anticipated game at Sabina Park in Kingston, starting today at 10:00 am.

Also starting today, Leeward Islands challenge Barbados in St Kitts, while Guyana welcome the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) to the Providence as teams hunt semi-final spots.

The Jamaicans, champions for the previous five first-class seasons, are undisputed regional four-day kingpins and have started this campaign in a dominant mode — chalking up three straight victories, including a 91-run triumph over leaders Windward Islands in Grenada, to be on 36 points.

Tamar Lambert’s Jamaicans are also one victory away from bettering the regional first-class record of 12 consecutive match wins, which is said to be held by Barbados.

Trinidad & Tobago, who last took the four-day title in the 2005-06 season, also have 36 points, but the Denesh Ramdin-captained unit has lost once in their four outings — a 10-wicket defeat to the Windwards in St Vincent.

Windward Islands are currently on 48 points after four wins and the lone loss in their five matches.

The Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago outfits have been involved in hotly-contested battles in recent times, but the latter, in particular, has been impacted heavily by the loss of several key players.

Senior players Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Ravi Rampaul, Samuel Badree and Kevon Cooper are out due to commitments to the Indian Premier League (IPL), which starts in less than a week.

In addition, West Indies middle-order batsman Darren Bravo is absent after requesting to be overlooked for the Jamaica trip.

The Jamaican camp is far less ravaged, but coach Junior Bennett will have to do without the services of star batsmen Marlon Samuels and Christopher Gayle, as well as exciting all-rounder Andre Russell.

Despite the missing players on both teams, captain Lambert foresees a “good game”.

“It’s going to be a good game and Trinidad is a tough opponent. They always push us to the limit, but at the end of the day we are playing some good cricket. If we can stand up and bat for an entire day to a day and a half we should be in a good position.

“They have performed well without those (senior) guys in four-day cricket over the years. Just like Jamaica … they still have some quality players in their team. They have Adrian Barath, their captain Denesh Ramdin and Lendl Simmons, so they have quality and (they have) Jason Mohammed who scored a hundred in the last game (against the Combined Campuses) so they do have quality batters,” Lambert told the Jamaica Observer.

The 28-year-old Ramdin hailed the strength of the Jamaicans, but believes his mostly young team is up for the task.

“There is always a good contest against Jamaica. They play patient cricket and they have aggressive players, who can take the bowling apart, but we have our game plan against them,” the West Indies wicketkeeper/batsman said.

Jamaica’s left-arm finger spinner Nikita Miller has raked in 30 wickets in only three matches, while leg break bowler Odean Brown, experienced seamer Andrew Richardson and left-arm pacer Sheldon Cotterell have taken crucial wickets.

All four, plus medium pacer David Bernard could be a handful on a Sabina surface that, in recent years, has provided bounce and turn for slow bowlers from as early as day one, in addition to pace and sideways movement for the quicker bowlers.

While seeming to acknowledge the Jamaican threats, Ramdin said his batsmen “will have to adjust” and pointed to his bowling attack, which includes several quality spinners plus 24-year-old West Indies fast bowler Shannon Gabriel.

“We know Miller is taking the wickets as well as Odean Brown and they have an out and out fast bowler in Cotterell. They have bowlers that our batsmen will have to contend with.

“It is going to be a challenge for our young batsmen, but with the experience of myself, Simmons and Barath to take the batting. We have players who like batting spin and who like to stay at the crease. Whatever comes, our batters will have to adjust and we have good spinners in our team as well,” he said.

Lambert, 31, is sure his slow bowling attack has the upper hand on the Trinidadian batsmen and suggested that the pace variety could be the ultimate plan B.

“I won’t say Trinidad play spin that well because Odean and Nikita tend to have good games against them. The spinners always take a lot of wickets against Trinidad.

“On the Sabina Park wicket, fast bowlers normally can get wickets too. There is pace in it and you get some bounce. In the last game Andrew Richardson and Sheldon Cotterell bowled aggressively on it and got early wickets,” Lambert said.

The teams will meet again in the Super50 competition at the same venue on April 4.

Squads: Jamaica — Tamar Lambert (capt), Nkrumah Bonner, Zeniffe Fowler, Danza Hyatt, Jermaine Blackwood, David Bernard, Carlton Baugh, Nikita Miller, Odean Brown, Andrew Richardson, Sheldon Cotterell, Brenton Parchment, Simon Jackson.

T&T — Denesh Ramdin (capt), Lendl Simmons, Adrian Barath, Jason Mohammed, Imran Khan, Kjorn Ottley, Yannick Ottley, Yannic Cariah, Amit Jaggernauth, Rayad Emrit, Kavesh Kantasingh, Marlon Richards.

Nikita Miller (left) celebrates the fall of a wicket during Jamaica’s games against the Leewards at Sabina Park last week.

(PHOTO: BRYAN CUMMINGS)