Jermaine Lannaman, Star Writer

The battle for a spot in next weekend's final of the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) Senior Cup will be on offer this weekend, when defending champions Manchester and Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) meet in semi-final play at Up Park Camp.

Manchester with a team comprising of a number of current and former national representatives, including Jamie Merchant, Zeniffe Fowler, David Powell, Donovan Sinclair and Andre Dwyer, will start as favourites for the clash, which is slated to get under way at 10:00 a.m. each day.

"Things are looking good at the moment even though we just lost two of our players to overseas duties," said Manchester's coach Barry Barnes.

"It therefore means that other youngsters now have the opportunity to step up and play a role and given their quality, I expect them to."

The young players to which Barnes refers are batsman Tristan Coleman and off-spinning all-rounder Nicholas Walters, who were members of the national Under-17 team, which took home the regional title last week.

The missing players, meanwhile, are batsman Damion Bryce and fast bowler Nieve McNally, who have left to compete in cricket leagues in the United States and Canada, respectively.

The JDF, on the other hand, who are looking to cop the double after claiming the national one-day title earlier this year are expected to provide a stiff test for the visitors with former national Under-19 left-arm wrist-spin standout Dennis Bulli, who has been nursing an injury, expected to lead the way.

He will lead the team in the absence of national fast bowler Sheldon Cotterell, who is currently in Barbados as a part of the second annual West Indies Cricket Board High Performance Centre.

All-rounder Akbar Moodie, batsman Jermaine Edwards, fast bowler Leslie Young and captain Damion Gray are the other JDF players, who could spoil Manchester's ambitions.

"We are in really high spirits as we have been really training hard," said Gray. "The players really want to win this match and advance to the final as it's about nine years now that we have not won the two-day title."

The first semi-final was played two weeks ago with the competition's leading wicket-taker, leg-spinning all-rounder Damion Jacobs taking a match haul of eight wickets to guide Melbourne to a 10-wicket victory over the Jerome Taylor-led St Elizabeth.