Guyana Amazon Warriors’ lead coach, Rayon Griffith reckons the best is yet to come in this season’s Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with the focus on the semi-finals.
Griffith discussed his team’s confidence boosting win during a virtual press conference yesterday while referencing their roller-coaster tournament to date.
According to Griffith, “We have been playing good cricket but we haven’t played our best so we are looking for the right time to peak and keep moving and just gain points and deal with the last four who qualify and take it step-by-step.”
With three wins in six matches, Griffith explained, “At the moment everything is going good in the camp. I think the players’ confidences are building…having those wins, having those points is very important at this point in this competition.”
The former First-Class fast bowler indicated that the conditions have been challenging but suggested that the right balance was a necessity.
“It’s time we find the right balance we are looking for. The changing of the batting order definitely we weren’t getting as much as we would like at the top of the order so we tweaked it a bit but what is important is most of the guys have some runs under their belts which will help them gain confidence.”
The lead coach admitted that there are definite areas in their overall game that would need to be addressed but reasoned that there are improvements already, pointing out the century opening partnership between Chandrapaul Hemraj and Brandon King.
“It was a top hundred [for Hemraj], we didn’t see much hundreds scored this CPL and especially after Faf [Du Plessis] made that century, Chandrapaul went out in the afternoon and sent a message as well so it is good for us as a team. One of our players getting a hundred. He was around a while, he didn’t get a good start, I think he averaged 14 odd before he made that hundred which took him up to over 30. It is a good boost for him and good for him to maintain his confidence,” Griffith stated.
On the other hand, while King has been finding it hard to score, Griffith reiterated the team’s confidence in him to deliver.
He said, “He didn’t have the best of the tournament but we are going to back Brandon. We believe Brandon will come, Brandon has been someone who played for this franchise [a while], this is his third year. He is going to come and we are going to continue to back him. We gave him some advice, he had a net session today which seemed pretty good.”
With regards to the bowling attack, Griffith rated Imran Tahir as one of the top two leg-spinners in the world with his experience and energy exemplifying the spirit of the team.
Also, Griffith was happy with the efforts of his pacers in Romario Shepherd and Odean Smith. According to Griffith, Shepherd has shown he has the guts and grit to fight, giving the example of his super over heroics where he defended seven runs while Smith has shown good form with his pace.
The next challenge for the Warriors will be Barbados Royals today at 19.00 hours.
