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DeSilva and West facing double duty

All-rounders David DeSilva and Blake West face double duty in a feast of end-of-season cricket at Sea Breeze Oval this weekend.

DeSilva and West play for Commercial League champions Forties as well as West's XI in the Evening League which wraps up its season today - weather permitting - with a double-header at the Bailey's Bay ground starting at 10 a.m.

West's XI face Prison Officers in the Premier final starting at 2 p.m. while Tuff Dogs take on Coopers & Lybrand in the earlier Second Division final. Both games will be 25 overs a side.

Forties, the 11 times champions, meet the holders, Jamaican Association, in tomorrow's 40 overs a side Commercial League knockout final starting at noon.

DeSilva and West both played key roles in Forties' 19-run semi-final victory over West Indian Association on a difficult pitch at Police Field last Sunday while the Jamaicans booked a place in the final with a narrow, two-wicket win over North Village at Shelly Bay.

Left-hander DeSilva, who has taken 22 wickets at 9.5 per over with an economy rate of 2.6 runs per over and made 224 runs at an average of 32 for the league champions this season, was the architect of Forties' victory over league runners-up WIA in a match of wildly fluctuating fortunes by hitting 65 and taking three for 26 in eight overs, avenging a first-round defeat last season.

"It was one of my best knocks in years," DeSilva said yesterday.

West, a commercial fishermen, had WIA reeling by dismissing hard-hitting skipper Barry Richards with the first ball of their innings and sealed Forties' nail-biting victory by bowling Stan Francis on his way to figures of two for 37 in 7.1 overs.

The Jamaicans are hoping to persuade keen golfer Donovan Livingston - their half-century hero in a four-wicket victory over Leg Trappers in last season's knockout final at Lord's - to turn out for tomorrow's final after he missed the semi-final win over North Village.

Forties held the edge over the Jamaicans in league matches this season, winning the first encounter by 71 runs at Shelly Bay, despite playing with 10 men, and getting a "winning" draw in the second at the same venue. But tomorrow's final is too close to call.