Jaguars face tough fight against full strength Red Force - ‘Batsmen will have to be positive without being reckless’ - Rayon Griffith

Jaguars face tough fight against full strength Red Force – ‘Batsmen will have to be positive without being reckless’ – Rayon Griffith

Oct 05, 2018 Sports

Manager and Asst Coach Rayon Griffith at yesterday afternoon’s practice session.

By Sean Devers in Trinidad
In association with Regal, Vnet
Noble House Seafoods & Cascadia Hotel

The Guyana Jaguars, without Shimron Hetymer, Kemo Paul and Devendra Bishoo who are in India, are in for a tough fight from 14:00hrs today when they face-off with a full strength T&T’s Red Force at Queen’s Park Oval in the 45th Regional 50-over tournament.
History is not on the side of the four times defending First-Class Champions since the last of their seven 50-over titles was won 13 years ago when Shiv Chanderpaul led Guyana to victory against Barbados at Bourda, while the last two occasions these two teams met the host won both times in Port-of-the-Spain.
In the 2015 final Sunil Narine’s 6-9 sent Guyana crashing to 65 all out, their only double digit total since the inauguration of Regional 50 overs cricket in 1976.
The last time the teams met was in the 2016 semi-finals and Darren Bravo’s brilliant 95 sent them to defeat and once again they find themselves in the Lion’s Den and will be up against a team packed with West Indies Internationals and what is anticipated to a raucous partisan crowd.
Despite not winning a title since 2005 Guyana has been consistently among the Region’s best; reaching nine semis and two finals and during that time the only years they did not qualify for the semi was in 2016 & 2017.
T&T are the most successful 50-over team in the Region winning 12 titles but has not tasted Championship success in three years and will be keen to put that right, especially since they boast one of their strongest teams on paper.
In 27 head-to-head matches between the two teams Guyana has won 15 and lost 11, while the 1996 final was washed out.
This tournament, set in the middle of Trinidad’s rain season and with Windies Test team in India, is being used as yard stick for next year’s World Cup selection.
In a rain affected opening game on Wednesday which was reduced to 37 overs the Red Force, led by 84 from Nicholas Pooran beat defending champions Windwards Volcanoes by 76 runs and today the Jaguars aim to deny them another win.
Jaguars skipper Leon Johnson looked back to his best form; scoring the most runs in the GCB’s Franchise League and will hope to continue that form today when he plays in his 50th list ‘A’ match.
Johnson’s highest at this level is 99 and he will need support from openers Trevon Griffith and Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Chanderpaul Hemraj who could bat at number three.
The Jaguars had their final practice session at National Cricket Centre (NCC) in Couva yesterday and it took the bus 90 minutes to get from Hilton Hotel in Port-of-Spain to the ground in Central Trinidad due to heavy traffic.
Manager and Assistant Coach Rayon Griffith said that he watched some of Wednesday night’s game and disclosed that the Red Force batsmen play spin very well.
“Their batsmen play spin well but we have five fast bowling all-rounders and an off-spinner and three left arm spinners and Hemraj could also bowl left-arm spin so we have lots of bowling options.
We could be tempted to bowl more pace at them and play two specialists spinners with Hemraj as a back-up plan. But our plan is to bowl consistent lines and lengths and more importantly because of their batting we also have to take wickets,” said Griffith who performed a similar role with the Windies ‘A’ team.
Griffith informed that the need to play positive cricket makes use of every opportunity to score.
“We have to play with a positive mind set without being reckless and look to score as much as possible. We generally use up too many dot balls and the batsmen must try to rotate the strike more and capitalize on every loose ball bowled by Trinidad,” Griffith stated.
Guyana batting goes deep with fast bowling all-rounders Sherfane Rutherford, Chris Barnwell, Romario Shepherd, Raymon Reifer and Keeper Anthony Bramble all capable of big scores at this level.
Guyana’s bowling could hinge on pace with Shepherd, Barnwell, Reifer and Rutherford getting support from off-spinner Ramaal Lewis and left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul with spin support from Hemraj on what should be a decent track since the sun was out all day yesterday.
The Trinis have a powerhouse team which looks capable of beating the Windies team in India with Bajan Kyle Hope, Kieron Pollard, the Bravo siblings, Denish Ramdin, Sunil Narine, Ravi Rampaul, Jason Mohammed, Lendl Simmons and Rayed Emrit all having played for the West Indies, while promising left-arm spinner Khary Pierre and Nicolas Pooran are not far away from Windies selection.
Simmons, the Bravo brothers, Pooran, Ramdin and Mohammed are very good players of spin and the talented Lewis and the experienced Permaul will have to be at their best today.