Coach of Guyana’s Amazon Conquerors Twenty20 cricket team Rabindranauth Seeram has blamed the failure of the team to stick to the game plan as the reason for the team’s opening round defeat to Jamaica Monday night.
The Guyana team crashed to a heavy 50-run defeat to the `Reggage Cricketers’ in the second game of the opening round of the West Indies Cricket Board’s T20 tournament in Antigua.
Seeram yesterday admitted that the batting performance was poor but said he was hopeful that the side will bounce back from the humiliating defeat.
He suggested that the defending champion’s poor performance could be attributed to the lack of turf practise prior to the commencement of the tournament.
Sarwan rotated bowlers well
According to Seeram, Captain Ramnaresh Sarwan rotated his bowlers well and he said he felt the combination of players was a good one.
However, according to Seeram, the batsmen did not play as if they were the defending champions.
Seeram said he knows that the side is capable of playing “better cricket” but said that had the batsmen stuck with the original game plan, Guyana would have won the game.
After the Guyanese bowlers had restricted the Jamaicans to 115-7, ‘high-fives’ were exchanged by the players.
But, according to Seeram, there was never an element of over-confidence among the players.
Seeram said that he has realised that the side has a problem chasing the smaller targets and this will be remedied.
In addition to that, he pointed out that the side has a tendency of starting slowly and then picking up the pace as the competition progresses.
Team under pressure
The former national middle-order batsman also said he felt that the side might have started under immense pressure and this, coupled with not sticking to the game plan, might have brought about the downfall in the opening game.
Seeram though, was positive that the running between the wickets was “atrocious” adding that… “there is the need for younger batsmen to contribute more to the team.”
Asked to explain this statement he said that while the side had lost five wickets for 29 runs the remaining batsmen did not apply themselves and did not “rotate the strike to make the team came back into the game.”
Frank talk
According to Seeram after the game on Monday evening there was a serious talk, which served as an eye opener, to highlight some of these issues. Commenting on last year’s best batsman Jonathan Foo, Seeram said that he is playing as a batsman that can pinch hit down to the bottom of the order. He said that Foo knows his role in the side but Seeram said he believes that opponents may have found out his flaws and are capitalising on them. He said that Foo was spoken to and he is being worked on to change his approach to the game but said the explosive right hander will still be looked at to perform his role in the side.
Seeram also said that there was the notion of having Esaun Crandon coming earlier in the order to add some aggression early in the innings.
He said that Crandon was willing to play that role and the strategy of the side will be revisited for today’s game against English side Hampshire.
Of the match against Jamaica, Seeram said that the pitch played well except for the additional bounce that was not found in the local pitches. He added that players will now have to be more vigilant and will have to combine their experience to get through the other matches.
