It is Assad Fudadin’s strongest message to date since he became captain of the national cricket team.
Fudadin, leading a side whose batting has struggled for the most part of the current WICB First Class Regional tournament, said yesterday during his team’s practice session before today’s crucial matchup that he is not bothered by the England Lions.
What Fudadin, who has played 38 First Class matches, is mostly concerned about is his batsmen putting up challenging totals on the tins so as to ensure his bowlers have a fighting chance of taking 20 wickets.
“It is good for them to plan for us; I am not really bothered by the English. I am just looking forward to my batsmen putting together good scores so that the bowlers can continue to perform. In our last game [against Barbados] we had a lot of positives and we had some scores and we are confident since we have the batting ability to score 350, 400 runs, it is just our application that is needed,” Fudadin emphasised.
Prior to Guyana making 330 in their fourth round clash against Barbados in the first innings two weeks ago, their highest score was 197 against Jamaica in their opening match. The team’s batting display up to that match had been woeful although there were glimpses of those earlier performances in their second innings when they were restricted to 163-9 by the Bajans in the drawn encounter.
The abysmal performance of the team has them on 13 points and sixth on the points table.
The England Lions on the other hand have been able to pile on the runs throughout the tournament, securing the top two spots with scores of 553-6 declared against Leeward Islands, and 538 against Barbados.
Despite these scores though, the Englishmen have only won one game in the tournament, beating the Leewards by an innings and 120 runs in their opening game. The English side is currently in third position on the points table with 30 points.
The Guyana team has seen the return of middle order batsman Narsingh Deonarine, the first player to score 1000 run in a WICB First Class season. For Fudadin this is a boost to the side’s batting, while also declaring that his side is “confident and ready” going into today’s first day.
Fudadin said that the team will be going into the game with a plan and this will be executed despite some of the big names in the opposing team. He stated that cricket is not played by names but rather by two teams of players.
He acknowledged also that while he has lost one of his leading spinners, Devendra Bishoo, who is in South east Asia for the ICC World Cup and has 15 wickets in the tournament so far, he still has Bishoo’s spin cohort, Veerasammy Permaul, who also has 15 wickets, and a good replacement in Zaheer Mohamed. With these assets in the team, along with pacer Brandon Bess, Fudadin believes the team’s prospects are good.
“Our bowling has been really good for us this season. I am backing my bowlers to bowl out any opposition,” the 25-year-old declared.
Having said that, Fudadin pointed out that it is a welcome sign that the Englishmen have not been able to bowl out the opposition, save for the Leewards. He reiterated that his batsmen have to go out in the middle and produce good scores.
When Stabroek Sport spoke with England Lions player Andrew Gale he said that his team will be looking to win the game although they are expecting a tough encounter.
The 27-year-old recognised that the Guyanese have not performed as well as they might have wanted to but he stated that they would want to get back to “winning ways.”
He also admitted that throughout the tournament the visiting side had opportunities to win games but those fell by the wayside. The left handed batsman also stated that strategies will be put in place to ensure that players are fully utilised and the team’s bowlers have a chance to take 20 wickets.
“At times we have built pressure up during the game, being disciplined and then there are other times we have let the other team off the hook in commanding positions, particularly second innings. The spinners have got to work a bit harder, I think,” Gale opined.
Responding to questions about his team’s batting Gale said, “We have put in some very consistent performances especially with the bat; five or six of the batsmen have made a hundred and we want that to continue. We have tried to bat first on most of the pitches so far so I would imagine that the skipper will look to bat and hopefully a couple of the batsmen can get stuck and make big hundreds, four or five at least.”
