Warriors looking for improved batting performance against TKR today

Aug 27, 2020 Sports

By Zaheer Mohamed

The Guyana Amazon Warriors will take on Trinbago Knight Riders, while St. Lucia Zouks will face St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots when the Caribbean Premier League continues today at Queen’s Park Oval. With the aim of securing their place in the final four, the Warriors technical staff will be looking for an improved batting performance so that their bowlers can have a decent total to defend.
Warriors’ skipper, Australian Chris Green had said that they want to be peaking at the back end of the tournament, but the focus should now be to reach the final four, and unless their batting clicks this seems a difficult task.
Green said that they were unable to consolidate in their low scoring defeat to the Jamaica Tallawahs.
“We weren’t able to consolidate; the batting really needs to start standing up. This wicket suited spin and the guys were caught in two minds. We saw a lot of dot balls than we usually do. We need to discuss what’s the best way to play, we have got the quality, the guys need to put their hands up and do some hard work. We need one of our top four batters to bat through and set a plat form.”
The batting in this tournament has been below par and captains have noted that the lack of practice has contributed; this may be so since prior and proper preparation is necessary for success. The pitches have been bowlers friendly and this may not change as the tournament continues. However, while some have sighted the lack of preparation as a reason not to reach their peak so far in the tournament, the batsmen, both regional and overseas should have adopted better by now; form is temporary, but class is permanent.
The batting is a major concern for the Warriors management and they may have to create a competitive culture in the team which may see an improvement from the batsmen. Poor shot selection has been the downfall of most of the top order batters who have been around at this level for some time, and are not short of talent and experience. Cricket like other sports requires over 70 percent application from above the shoulders to be successful; while batting in partnerships and rotating the strike are of utmost important in setting or chasing totals, the batsmen have not shown that the type of application needed.
Shimron Hetmyer got two half centuries at the start of the tournament, but he didn’t capitalize in the other matches, while Sherfane Rutherford has not done his talent justice so far. Nicholas Pooran has done well and a lot will depend on him for sizeable totals since Ross Taylor is not in the best of form. Romario Shepherd is too talented a player to be sitting on the bench for so long while Kevin Sinclair, a talented batsman and useful off-spinner, should be given a chance to prove his worth since he was one of the standouts in the last Regional Super50. Chandrapaul Hemraj should be brought back in the playing eleven since Anthony Bramble looked out of form.
The Warriors bowling has been good with new boy Ashmead Nedd being one of the finds so far, and against a powerful Knight Riders batting, the bowling must continue with their consistency.
Green noted that his bowlers have been doing simple things well and the fielding has been good, but the batsmen need to step up.
The Warriors have played unbeaten until their defeated to Barbados Tridents in the final of last year’s competition and certainly their fans are expecting them, especially the batsmen, to do much better than they have done so far in this year’s edition. Zouks and Patriots fixture will commence at 10:00hrs while the Warriors and TKR will battle from 17:30hrs.

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