Leading wicket-taker among the Guyana Jaguars seamers Raymon Rifer, says he’s been working twice as hard to ensure he performs better with the ball as the defending champions eye a clean sweep in this season’s Professional Cricket League (PCL) Regional Four Day tournament.
Table leaders Guyana are currently two matches away from ending the four-dayers undefeated and Reifer, the Barbados-born left-arm swing bowler, has been a key player this season, bagging some 17 wickets to date as he continues to hold his own as one of the key men in his team’s Jaguars fast-bowling department.
Speaking with Stabroek Sport yesterday, the all-rounder credited some extra time, training and working hard as factors behind his current success.
”It is a good feeling, I’ve been putting in a lot of work in that area to become a better bowler and it has been paying off so I’m
thankful for that,” he said.
With the talents of Ronsford Beaton and Keon Joseph the liveliest of the trio, the Jaguars have formed a good three pronged pace attack with Reifer being the patient operator, exploiting the slow surfaces around the Caribbean throughout the competition as he leapt ahead of his teammates in the wickets column.
However, apart from his match-saving second innings of 19 not out from 116 balls against the Barbados Pride in round seven played on his home
ground Kensington Oval, his 37 not out against the Windwards Volcanoes in the previous game remains his highest score in eight games. He nevertheless added that this season was much better than the previous, saying he believes that his first triple figure score could come before the competition ends.
“I think this year has been better in terms of my all-round performance because earlier in the season I was putting too much
pressure on myself with the bat instead of being relaxed and enjoying my batting. I see myself as a front-line bowler but I also believe they’re areas I can improve in to get to the next level as a genuine all-rounder,” he said.
“With the bat, I just want try to finish off the season as strong as possible, for the final games coming up I’m just going to continue what I was doing to prepare myself, stick to the basics and continue to keep things simple because I’m definitely looking forward to getting a century in these final rounds.”
Unbeaten so far this season with just one draw in round seven against the Pride, Guyana are well on course to completing an historical undefeated streak while defending their title once they can churn out similar performances against Leewards and Jamaica. When questioned on his team’s performance to date, the 24 year-old was optimistic that Guyana is in a position to end the season on an extremely high note.
“I think if you look at how we played last year coming into this year we have been playing a high brand of cricket. If you look at some of the positions we are in at times, we still come out on top and that says a lot about the character of the team so once we continue to play the cricket that we are playing now for the final two games, we will definitely come out on top”.
Guyana will play the Leewards Hurricanes in Antigua from March 11 to 14 before returning home to end off the season against the Jamaica Scorpions at the Providence National Stadium from March 18-21.
