Williams not worried about Red Force loss

Coach David Williams says resting some of his key players for the second T20 match against Guyana may have been responsible for an eight-run loss in the second of two games on the weekend. T&T are currently preparing for the Champions League Twenty20 in India which starts on September 17 and have at least four more matches lined up before they leave for India on September 16, including two against the Windward Islands in Dominica this weekend. Both Darren Bravo and Sunil Narine who are part of the T&T squad were rested for the trip to Guyana.
The “Red Force” reached 136 for seven in reply to Guyana’s 144 for six in the second match and Williams said his players did extremely well to come back in the match after losing some early wickets.

Rookie player Evin Lewis helped them get back into the contest with a solid 54 and in the end, T&T fell short by eight runs. “We faltered a bit in the batting in the second game and the death bowling was not as good as it should have been but all in all it was good performance,” said Williams. “After losing three wickets for four runs, we came back well to post a good total but we did rest some of our key players,” he explained. “Lendl Simmons, Samuel Badree, Ravi Rampaul and Yannick Ottley did not play the second game so it was not the strongest team but in the circumstances we wanted to give the other players a run so all in all I am happy with the two games. I think we played two very good competitive games,” the coach added. But Williams also noted that T&T did not get all they wanted from the Guyana trip and expects pacer Ravi Rampaul to get a longer run in Dominica after bowling just one over in Guyana.

The coach explained that the damp conditions and the state of the pitch in Saturday’s game meant that the pacer, who is on the comeback trail following an ankle injury, just bowled one over.
“He bowled one over because the conditions were not what we expected. There was a lot of rain and it was wet and slippery so we did not want to risk it but come Dominica, he will get a good run and we will be able to better assess him from there,” Williams explained. The T&T coach says the coaching staff is still searching for the right first team combination of players for their trip to India, and their upcoming matches in Dominica and then at home in Trinidad will go a long way in helping them fine-tune for their big assignment. “We now head to Dominica for two more competitive games. We are always trying to find the right combination and these matches will help us to do that before we get to India,” said Williams. “Narine and Bravo are back in the team and that will strengthen the squad also. 

Lendl Simmons is not going to Dominica but we still have a very good team. “We want to make sure we have the right combination and we want the guys running into good form when we head to India. “That is the key and we have guys who have been doing very well,” he concluded. T&T leave for Dominica tomorrow with matches scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

T&T Squad: Denesh Ramdin (captain), Evin Lewis, Adrian Barath, Nicholas Sookdeosingh, Darren Bravo, Jason Mohammed, Jason Mohammed, Rayad Emrit, Yannick Ottley, Nicholas Pooran, Ravi Rampaul, Sherwin Ganga, Sunil Narine, Navin Stewart, Shannon Gabriel, Samuel Badree. Omar Khan (manager), David Williams (coach), Kelvin Williams (assistant coach), Oba Gulston (physio), Dinesh Mahabir (video analyst).