The Guyana cricket team are very disappointed following their defeat to Jamaica in the semi final of the KFC limited overs competition at the Three Ws’ Oval at Cave Hill, Barbados, on Thursday.
In an invited comment with Stabroek Sport, stand-in captain Narsingh Deonarine said the team was very disappointed with the result.
“We are truly disappointed in every sense of the word following our loss to Jamaica. First to begin with, the loss of Shivnarine Chanderpaul at the commencement of the competition was a blow. Then we lost Sarwan (Ramnaresh) before the commencement of the final preliminary round game against Trinidad to a freak accident during our game of touch rugby and this dampened the team spirit a bit.”
“We, however, went out there and put our best foot forward in both games but came up short. In both games, we did not get the total we were looking for, especially against Jamaica in the semi final.”
Guyana made a thoroughly inadequate 159-9 from 43 overs in the rain-affected game which started late and was reduced by seven overs because of a wet area at the western side of the field.
In the first day/night KFC encounter, Jamaica replied with 160-3 from 40.1 overs to win by seven wickets and book their place in tomorrow’s final.
“Against Jamaica our batting let us down a great lot as we were looking to get around 250-275 but fell short with our middle order being undermined by the bowling of Australian Brendon Nash who bowled a tight line and length for his team claiming 4-20 from his nine overs,” Deonarine said.
“Our bowlers then displayed a sterling effort to defend such a small total but it was not enough for them to bowl at.”
The Guyanese employed a pace/spin attack to the Jamaicans and reaped success as early as the second over when off spinner Royston Crandon removed the captain and danger man in West Indies opener Chris Gayle whom he had caught at the wicket. Gayle had struck the previously delivery back over long off for six.
“That ploy worked well as we knew the Jamaicans would have struggled against the slower bowlers and also the pitch was conducive enough for slow bowling as the match wore on. However, our total was well short but we still managed to make a match out of it.”
Deonarine, who went first ball to Nash, had expected the more senior, accomplished batsmen to hang around and offer some support to opener Sewnarine Chattergoon, who stuck it out to score 66 runs out of his team’s total.
“We used wicket keeper/batsman Darwin Christian at number three as a pinch hitter to push the innings and set the foundation for the more senior batsmen to build on, but unfortunately for us, that ploy did not work as Nash controlled things from a Jamaican perspective and stifled our middle order.”
The Guyanese players will be returning home shortly to continue their preparation for the Stanford Twenty/20 title defence.
They are also expected to participate in a Twenty/20 Inter Club and three-day Inter-County competitions.
