The Guyana Amazon Warriors got off the hook in their last encounter against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots courtesy of a superstar performance by Nicholas Pooran who blasted a 45-ball century to see his side over the line. It was his maiden T20 ton.
The Warriors were looking in danger of conceding their fifth loss of the tournament following another top-order blip after being reduced to 25-3 in pursuit of 151 for victory. However, they were spared the blushes after Pooran’s superb innings and Ross Taylor’s crafty supporting knock. The duo shared an unbroken stand of 128 runs to usher the side to a memorable and much-needed win.
However, the coaching and management staff will know that they may have to retool the top order to find more success down the road.
The top order, particularly the opening pair, has struggled and after seven matches, only managed one half-century partnership – a 56-run stand between Chandrapaul Hemraj and Brandon King against Jamaica during their third encounter. King, who has played all the matches so far has had three different opening partners. Those partnerships have yielded little returns of 1, 12, 56, 1, 0, 10, and 20 respectively.
To solve the top order problem, Shimron Hetmyer or Sherfane Rutherford may need to open the batting with either of the-out-of-sorts King or Hemraj. The move will pave the way for Pooran, who before his century scored 68 against Zouks to move up to number three to give him a few more overs to go to work. It is only wise to give him more time at the crease as the man in form while the likes of Taylor could follow at four to perform the anchoring role.
Should he not be used in the opening slot, Chris Green will also have to find a way to motivate Rutherford, who has had a lean run during the 2020 edition of the tournament so much so that he was dropped from the last match. He has only managed to reach double figures twice from six innings but Warriors, I don’t believe, can pull off their maiden title win with Rutherford sitting on the benches. He is another player who has suffered from having little opportunities to show what he’s made off. Thus, with Hetmyer and Pooran moving up the order a notch, that may just hand him some more overs to get himself in.
All in all, T20 tournaments are all about working different combinations to find the right ones, especially when a team isn’t doing too well. And with Warriors fighting to stay alive, now may be a good opportunity to hand the likes of Hetmyer, Pooran, Taylor, and Rutherford a bit more responsibility.
My XI for today’s encounter: Brandon King, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran, Ross Taylor, Sherfane Rutherford, Keemo Paul, Kevin Sinclair, Chris Green, Romario Shepherd, Ashmead Nedd and Imran Tahir.
