The T&T Red Steel will be seeking its first victory of the inaugural Caribbean Premier League when it takes on the Jamaica Tallawahs in front of its home crowd at the Queen's Park Oval this evening.With losses to the Guyana Amazon Warriors and Barbados Tridents in its opening matches, T&T are currently at the bottom of the six-team points table and will need a dramatic turn around in their remaining five games to qualify for the semifinals.A major concern has been the performance of its batting line up, which folded for 52 against the Bajans on Saturday night, the second lowest total in a T20 in the Caribbean. The lone bright spot in that game was the spell of fast bowler Fidel Edwards, who took five for 22 in his four overs.
Speaking to the media yesterday, captain Dwayne Bravo said the results of T&T's three upcoming games at the Oval would make or break its campaign."If we win tomorrow's game, anything will be possible down the road and if we win these three games we'll be right back into the tournament," he said.Meanwhile, Red Steel coach Gordon Greenidge admitted the side was still trying to find the right formula for success."We more or less went from one extreme against Guyana to the other against Barbados. We tried to be too cautious in Guyana and didn't get the total we really should have and in Barbados we went the completely opposite way so we need to strike a balance."He added that the management was yet to decide on any changes in selection."As far as the team make up is concerned we need to look at all angles and cover all the bases we're missing. We just need our batsmen to click. Hopefully tomorrow will be the start of where we want our team to be so we'll be looking forward to that. We need to discuss the matter at length as to whether or not we need to make changes."
Despite losing their first game, the Tallawahs will be riding high after their seven-wicket win over Antigua on Sunday in which allrounder Andre Russell blasted an unbeaten 43 off 23 balls and South African pacer Vernon Philander had figures of 4-0-16-3. Their attack also includes legendary Sri Lankan offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan, now 41, as well as Nikita Miller, who will be eager to get at the T&T batsmen after fellow left arm spinner Shakib Al-Hasan (4-1-6-6) ran through their line-up on Saturday. Captain Chris Gayle is the world's most accomplished batsman in the format but has endured a woeful run of form of late, failing to cross 30 in his previous 12 competitive innings.
He addressed his struggles with the bat yesterday."Chris is good to be honest with you. It's just been a lot of cricket we've played and you take it in stride but these things do happen in cricket. I've been in more difficult situations than this before.The game of cricket is part of life so it's an experience but at the same time you've got to stay positive and be firm within yourself and give yourself that chance to go out their and perform... We have a few more weeks left in this tournament and a couple months off will do me good."
Bravo said that despite Gayle's recent woes, the Red Steel were still weary of the threat he could pose."Every team has dangerous players and we know Chris is the best player in the game in this format," he said. "He's struggling at the moment but all its takes is one good innings or boundary to get his confidence going so we're going to try to attack him early to ensure that we're not the team he gets his form against. If that does happen it will be a different ball game.If we remove him early it will send a dent into the team but we can't focus on him alone. They have Andre Russell, Jacques Rudolph and other good players in their set up so we have to respect every player."