By Marlon Munroe
The Amazon Conquerors find themselves in a must-win situation to secure a clear passage to the semi-final round of the Caribbean Twenty20 tournament when the Barbados round commences today.
The Guyanese ended the Antigua leg of the competition atop of Group A with eight points from two wins and a loss.
However, the side has a Net Run Rate (NRR) of -0.7333, the lowest of their rivals Jamaica (+1.094), Somerset (+0.400) and Windward Islands (+0.275), who have two remaining games.
The other team in the group is the Combined Campuses and Colleges team (CCC) with an NRR of -0.413 from three games which includes two losses and a win.
The four teams are locked on four points. Jamaica will clash with English side Somerset at Kensington Oval from 16:00 hours today.
The Jamaicans have already beaten the defending champions in their first game of the tournament by 50 runs in the low scoring match.
Subsequently, the Jamaicans lost to the CCC while the Guyanese claimed two cliff-hanger wins over Somerset (by one run) and then over CCC (with two balls to spare after they were trailing 119-7 chasing 176 for victory).
Medium fast bowler Esaun Crandon was the most instrumental figure in the win against Somerset with his stingy last over that saw two wickets falling while wicketkeeper batsman Derwin Christian blasted an unbeaten 40 to keep the Guyanese’s championship hopes alive in the game against the CCC team.
However, throughout Guyana’s campaign of the Caribbean championships they were virtually forced to secure come from behind wins.
The team’s batting has been the Achilles heel of the tournament, the same as the case in the Airtel Champion’s League tournament in South Africa last year.
For the most part the team’s batting strength continues to hinge on Captain Ramnaresh Sarwan’s contribution, in a tournament that has been dotted by low scores.
The batting showed some back bone in the last match against the CCC with many of the batsmen getting useful starts.
However, they all failed to convert to bigger scores except Christian.
The batting line up was always questionable with coach Ravindranauth Seeram seemingly content to leave the bulk of the scoring to those players with test experience in Sewnarine Chattergoon, Travis Dowlin, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Sarwan.
However the loss to Jamaica and the near defeat to English side Somerset quickly forced Seeram to resort to plan `B’ which was to open with chanderpaul and insert medium pacer Esaun Crandon into a pinch hitting role.
When this was done in Guyana’s last match Chanderpaul made his most valuable contribution of the tournament with 19 while Crandon promoted to the number three position scored 21.
Jonathan Foo seems unable to replicate his power hitting feats of last year down the order although he scored a vital 21 in the last match.
Foo and Steven Jacobs were involved in a crucial partnership in the middle against the CCC team and both should have vital roles to play in tonight’s game.
All rounder Jacobs scored 18 against CCC and has the huge responsibility of filling the slot that was filled last year by Lennox Cush.
The Guyana team is likely to make a few changes today one of which should see Andre Stoll coming in for Veerasammy Permaul to balance the attack which is at the moment heavily spin based.
The team’s bowling has been penetrative. The bowlers have been able to restrict their opponents for meagre scores. In Guyana’s first match Jamaica made 115 and Somerset only managed 111; CCC, on the other hand, were able to amass 175.
Off spinner Royston Crandon has five wickets for Guyana, the most for the team, while right arm leg spinner Devendra Bishoo, last year’s Player-of-the-Tournament, and the older Crandon sibling, Esaun, have four wickets apiece.
All rounder Christopher Barnwell, can also play useful roles with both ball and bat.
