Latest update February 11th, 2025 2:15 PM
Sep 06, 2020 Sports
By Sean Devers
The Guyana Amazon Warriors with 12 points from six wins and four losses will play their seventh semi-final in the 8th edition of the Caribbean Premier League CPL T20 tournament on Tuesday at the Brian Lara Academy.
Nicholas Pooran bludgeoned the first hundred of Hero CPL 2020 off just 45 balls to lead the Warriors to victory. (CPL)
Guyana, the most consistent team in the tournament, has reached five of the seven finals, including last year when they won 11 matches before losing in the final to Barbados. They have always being the bridesmaid but never the bride.
However, long serving manager, Trinidadian Omar Khan feels that this could be the year to shake off the monkey off of their back
“The team has adjusted very well to the covid-19 restrictions…yes these are different circumstances and the guys have to adjust to the new environment but at the end of the day they’re all professionals and have conducted themselves very well in terms of adjusting to the Coved situation,” Khan said.
While admitting the disadvantages of the restrictions caused by the global pandemic, Khan, who has been the manager from the introduction of the CPL, which had to be played behind closed doors this year, feels his players are professionals and have been dealing very well with the restrictions, which included a 14-day quarantine when they arrived in Port of Spain.
“Yes I would say that the pandemic had some effect in terms of us not having much practice before the tournament and not having practice games and a camp and such things, but nevertheless we have to adjust and the reality of the situation is that you have to just go out there and be mentally strong more than anything else,” Khan continued.
To make matters worse the tournament is being held in the middle of the rainy season and amidst the ongoing virus which has seen cases rising in the twin-Island Republic.
With last-minute notification of the hosting of the tournament the curators had little time to prepare the best pitches at the two venues hosting the games; the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain and the Brian Lara Academy in South Trinidad.
Shimron Hetmyer will want and need to come good with the bat in the two remaining matches they are likely to play. (CPL)
With those venues being used for matches, no pitch practice was allowed but according to Khan, the University of the West Indies made their ground, which is one of four First-Class venues in Trinidad and is equipped with lights, available to the CPL.
“We are using the UWI ground in St Augustine which has been delegated the practice venue for all of the teams to conduct net sessions and fielding drills,” the long-serving Warriors manager informed.
Although Guyanese Shimron Hetmyer is the tournament’s leading run-scorer with 267 runs, his runs has been overshadowed by 7 failures, while Trinidadian Nicholas Pooran has scored the only century in a sub-standard tournament for batsmen.
But they have both been inconsistent with Pooran getting a couple of low scores in the last two preliminary round games.
Out of form Jamaica opener Brandon King is the only other Warriors batsman to register a half-century but no two batsmen have scored fifties in the same game as most of the batsmen this season have struggled badly against the spinners on spin-friendly tracks.
Asked about the poor batting and if there was a worry about reaching the semi-finals Khan responded.
“We had concerns initially about the batting but we knew that with the more matches we played the guys would get more match practice and we would come good, and we have proven that.
There are still some areas that we have to work on but we were never worried about reaching the semi-finals.
We knew we had 10 games to play and that once we got into that momentum the winning habit would pick-up. We have done that and won our last four games and want to continue that in the semi-final,” Khan continued.
Three- times defending Champions Trinbago Kinght Riders are unbeaten and head the points table with St. Lucia, Guyana and Jamaica following in that order.
Defending Champions Barbados and Saint Kitts and Nevis can no longer make the play-off
“We are placed third and hope to play St Lucia in the semi-final but at the end of the day whoever we have to play does not matter, we are here to win the tournament and hope to continue a winning vein and have asked the guys to remain focused and committed to the cause.
We still have two more games; the semi-final and the final and we want to be there and lift the trophy this year.
The team spirit is very good the guys are in High Spirits. They’re very committed and focused on looking forward to getting Guyana the trophy this year,” Khan concluded.
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