A sense of ruthless is brewing in the Guyana Jaguars setup as they head into their second-round clash of Cricket West Indies Profession league with both skipper Leon Johnson and coach Esuan Crandon speaking of a need to improve the side’s performance even after dominating the Jamaica Scorpions in the opening round of their title defence.
Jaguars are set to battle against the Windward Islands Volcanoes from today at the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium.
Johnson, speaking after his team routed the Scorpions by a mammoth 263 runs in their opening encounter, laid out his high expectations for the upcoming battle.
“There is always room for improvements,” Johnson, the man currently at the helm of the three – day side remarked.
“Batsmen converting their starts into big scores is one of the areas we need to improve on. It was our first game but a couple of batsmen got into the thirties and got out and that’s an area we need to work on.”
The skipper, in his assessment of the batters, said they will have to adjust their game to suit the surface in St Lucia.
On the bowling side, Johnson was far less critical of his men who managed to limit the Scorpions to under the 250-run mark in both innings as left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul bagged his fifth regional ten-wicket haul.
He, however, called for more consistency and more patience for the upcoming clash. The attack will be bolstered by the inclusion of speedster Keon Joseph, fresh off his West Indies ‘A’ team stint.
Crandon echoed similar sentiments, backing Johnson in calling on the batsmen to convert starts into big scores and requiring the bowlers to remain in measly mode.
“What I would love to see is some of the guys converting their starts into big scores, Crandon said while touching on the fielding noting the need to improve the side’s overall catching.
Jaguars will come up against a Windward Islands side which drew their first encounter against their counterparts from the Leeward Island in a match where the improving Roland Cato (90), old-timer Devon Smith (185*) and the highly rated Kaveem Hodge (56*) were among the runs.
Their bowling is a fairly settled and experienced one as left-arm seamer Delorn Johnson who copped a ‘five for” the last time the two sides met, expected to pose some trouble with the cherry.
Spin for the Islanders will come from discarded Test off-spinner Shane Shillingford, fellow off-spinner Liam Sebastien and left – armer Hodge.
Jaguars Squad: Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Rajendra Chandrika, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Leon Johnson (captain), Keemo Paul, Anthony Bramble+, Veerasammy Permaul, Gudakesh Motie, Romario Shepherd, Sherfane Rutherford, Keon Joseph, Visahul Singh and Akshaya Persaud.
