Jamaica faces Barbados on Friday in the 2013 Caribbean Premier League semifinals. The match starts at 7:50 p.m. ET. Watch the live stream HERE.
Barbados' Shakib Al Hasan hasn't performed well in his batting, something he hopes to turn around on Friday.
"I am a bit down about that (batting) but my teammates support me because they always tell me these Caribbean pitches are not the easiest to adapt to," Shakib told ESPN. "I really want to come good with some runs though."
Shakib has batted an average of 3.66 in six innings, but has taken 11 wickets at a rate of 5.58, according to ESPN. The Caribbean pitches have warranted the biggest adjustment from him. Still, he considers the tournament a great opportunity to fine tune his skills ahead the October bout between his Bangladesh team and New Zealand.
"I am getting immense practice," he said. "... I was able to share my past experience as a captain with the Caribbean guys and I think this is a great move for other players from my country to potentially join. I learnt a lot playing with the likes of (Kieron) Pollard and Shoaib (Malik) and everyone else in our camp."
On the other side is all-arounder Andre Russell for Jamaica. Russell leads his team's batting average with 32.25 and is the team's second-highest run-scorer with 141, according to ESPN. Similar to Shakib, Russell sees the inaugural tournament as a chance to improve and earn a spot on the national team.
"I've been working hard on my batting and bowling so I am not really surprised by form at the moment," Russell told ESPN. "I'm bowling good Yorkers, I'm hitting the ball cleanly and I'm waiting for my type of balls to dispatch so I'm happy. We've qualified for the semi-finals but we want to keep up that winning momentum so we just want to take it step by step."
