Captain Darren Sammy said the St Lucia Zouks were in brilliant spirits heading into today’s clash against the undefeated Guyana Amazon Warriors, despite being mauled by Limacol Caribbean Premier League (LCPL) T20 champs, the Jamaica Tallawahs in the opening match.
The Zouks face the Guyana Amazon Warriors today at 4 pm.
During a brief press conference yesterday at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, Sammy said the Zouks had put the 7-wicket loss at the hands of Chris Gayle’s team behind them.
“The atmosphere is brilliant going into tomorrow’s [today’s] game. We had a difficult game against the defending champions. I think Chris played a brilliant innings and that was the difference but we are very optimistic and assured of the calibre we have in the dressing room and now we are here in Guyana we want to do the same thing we did last year,” said Sammy.
“There is always room for improvement. Our batters did well in the first game. We have put the first game result behind us. We know… we are capable of batting much better and I expect that with the quality and experience we have we will turn it around soon,” the West Indies T20 skipper.
The Warriors are two up in the competition, after defeating the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel on Wednesday evening at Providence in a Super Over thanks to Sunil Narine’s astonishing wicket maiden. They will look to maintain their winnings ways come today.
The Warriors will once again look to their top order for early fireworks while the lower order players will be called upon to maintain their form with the bat.
“We are delighted with the win, it’s points in the bag,” Warriors Coach Roger Harper said, “but we know each game brings new challenges… We also realise we are not playing the way we know we are capable of playing and that is what we are striving for… [to] continue winning and playing at the level we are capable of.”
Harper went on to say, “We need to bat better. We have what I think is a good all-round team.
Our teamwork is pulling us through at the moment.”
The Zouks will depend on the likes of Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher and Sammy for contributions with the bat, while South African all-rounder Roelof van der Merwe and Pakistan’s Sohail Tanvir bring balance to the team. Ex-England star batsman Kevin Pietersen will hopefully join the team in the latter part of the tourney following the conclusion of the ongoing Natwest T20 Blast.
St Lucia Zouks were victorious against the Warriors last season, winning by five wickets and three balls.
Guyana Amazon Warriors squad: Denesh Ramdin (captain), Sunil Narine, Robin Bacchus, Christopher Barnwell, Ronsford Beaton, Trevon Griffith, Martin Guptill, Steven Jacobs, Leon Johnson, Mohammad Hafeez, James Neesham, Veerasammy Permaul, Krishmar Santokie, Lendl Simmons and Navin Stewart.
St Lucia Zouks squad: Darren Sammy (captain), Brad Hodge, Shane Shillingford, Roelof van Der Merwe, Tino Best, Andre Fletcher, Sohail Tanvir, Johnson Charles, Garey Mathurin, Sunil Ambris, Keddy Lesporis, Liam Sebastien, Mervin Mathew and Tonito Willett.
