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Batting order a concern as Guyana face CCC tonight

Jan 14, 2011 Sports

By Sean Devers in Antigua in association with Digicel, Carib Beer, Leisure Inn, Guyana Stores Limited, Queensway & Dave’s West Indian Imports (NY)

A sensational last over from Esuan Crandon on Wednesday night against English side Somerset kept Guyana’s semi-finals hopes alive after a crushing first round loss to Jamaica and tonight their batsmen will have to dig deep in their final game here when they battle CCC from 20:00hrs.
Ravindranauth Seeram continues to struggle tactically as a Coach and seems to be having all sorts of problems putting together a successful batting line-up while the deficiency of technique against the short ball by last year’s hero Jonathon Foo seems not to have
been properly addressed by the Coach.
Travis Dowlin and Sewnarine Chattergoon struggled to score quickly in the first power-play overs in South Africa but were once again asked to open against Jamaica when Richard Ramdeen left Guyana as the number 2 opener in the side to Dowlin.
Both openers predictably failed before the run outs of Test players Shiv Chanderpaul and the team’s most accomplished batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan condemned Guyana to a record low 65 all out and a 50 run-defeat after the bowlers had done well to limit Jamaica to 115-7.
Chattergoon, who replaced injured middle order batsman Narsingh Deonarine was dropped for the 2nd game and Chris Barnwell asked to open with Dowlin and once again both openers failed as Guyana limped to 112-8 despite a magnificent 53-ball 59 from Sarwan.
Chanderpaul, like Chattergoon is not ideally suited for T20 cricket and the decision by the selectors of having them both along with an out of form Dowlin in the team has put pressure on the inexperienced lower order to fire.
Chanderpaul is an outstanding batsman and only behind Brian Lara with Test runs for the West Indies and is still an asset in 50-over cricket with his solid batting.
However, the only time he played for Guyana, who has won two of the three regional T20 tournaments, Guyana failed to win and if he wants to play he should open the batting and bat through the innings.
Despite his past success, Dowlin has failed in his last 9 matches for Guyana and using Ramdeen and Chanderpaul to open today should be an option with Sarwan at number three.
Foo, who is batting too low in the order, should be allowed some time at the crease while Royston Crandon, one of only two batsmen to reach double figures in both matches, has to press on since he is capable of big shots.
As predicted before the tournament commenced the batting is Guyana’s biggest headache since all of the bowlers have bowled well in the two matches with the return of Veerasammy Permaul to partner fellow Albion spinner Davendra Bishoo, strengthening the bowling attack.
The low scores in the tournament might suggest that something is wrong with the pitches used but that is not true.  While the odd ball has kept low and batting second in the dew caused the odd ball to skid from the spinners the general bowling standard has not been too bad and the shot selection of the batsmen has been very poor.
CCC has been the most consistent team with the bat and apart from Sarwan, Andre Fletcher who scored 88 from 59 balls against CCC and Marlon Samuels’ unbeaten 54-ball 80 on Wednesday night shows that batsmen can score freely here.
CCC has played very good cricket and even in their loss to the Windward Islands, they scored 161-8 before outplaying Jamaica on Wednesday.
Skipper Rommel Currency, Kyle Hope, Martin Nurse, Miles Bascombe, William Perkins and the experienced player/Coach Floyd Reifer are all competent batsmen at this level with Perkins in particular very dangerous in T20 cricket.
Kevin McLean and Guyanese Gilford Moore are the main pacers while Jamaican leg-spinner Nkrumah Bonner, T&T left-arm spinner Kavesh Kantasingh, Test off-spinner Ryan Austin and Bajan off-spinning all-rounder Ryan Wiggins should provide the spin on what should be a slow track.
If Guyana bats well tonight they should win and the opening combination and the start they provide should be crucial to the Guyanese cause in their 2nd night game of the tournament.
The defending champions must win tonight to stay in contention of reaching the semi-finals since their final preliminary round match will be against the Windward’s, under lights at the Kensington Oval in Barbados on Tuesday.
Zone A points standings

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