The Leeward Islands cricket team was just the innocent victim of an opponent with a point to prove and should not take too personally their 167-run defeat in the ongoing WICB Caribbean T20.
This is according to the manager of the Trinidad and Tobago squad, Omar Khan, who told OBSERVER Sports that it was a do or die situation for the T&T men after having lost the opening fixture to the Windward Islands on the tournament’s opening day.
“At the end of the day, we had to go out there and prove a point, taking into consideration the first game we played against Windward Islands which of course, as you know, the team did not perform as expected. So coming out of that game it was important that we emphasised to the team the need for us to go out there and show the calibre of players that we have in our team (and) how we could perform,” he said.
“At the end of the day, Trinidad and Tobago is a championship team. We have played T20 cricket all over the world and the players who are in our team have a huge amount of experience playing all over the world. So we cannot come here with that type of reputation and do not demonstrate that we are a team that is capable of winning the competition and playing at our best,” Khan said.
The manager added that winning the contest by a huge margin was the plan going into the contest as net run-rate could ultimately decide which teams will advance to the next round of matches. Their text target, he said, is the Guyana squad.
“After we were defeated by the Windward Islands, we knew that we had to win all our games and win convincingly, so that if it comes down to net run-rate, we would have a very good net run-rate in terms of qualifying because in T20 cricket anything is possible so our aim is to win the next two games,” he said.
“We have won one last night (Wednesday). We have to beat Guyana on Friday, and then when we go to Barbados, we have to play Canada. So once we win on Friday, we know we should be sitting very well for qualification to the semi-finals.”
Trinidad and Tobago were led by Kieron Pollard, who had an unbeaten 56 off 15 balls that included five sixes in an over.
His knock helped lift T&T’s total to an imposing 211 for three, following which the spinners, Samuel Badree and Sunil Narine, polished off the Leewards for 44 – the second-lowest team total in Twenty20s.
According to Khan, players like Pollard need to perform if the team is to be successful in its bid to capture the title.
“Pollard came here with an injury and we have been treating his injury and he came here not 100 per cent fit but almost 90 per cent fit. He went into the first game a little tentative against Windward Islands but yesterday (Wednesday) he demonstrated that he is almost back to 100 per cent and once we can get a man like Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo understanding that yes they are big name players but they have also got to come out here and perform,” he said.
In Wednesday’s opening contest, Windward Islands eased to a nine-wicket win against Canada, with 21 balls to spare.
All efforts to reach coach of the Leeward Islands team, Stuart Williams, for comment proved futile.
(Source http://www.antiguaobserver.com/?p=69813)
