Ryan Bachoo
ryan.bachoo@cnc3.co.tt
The T&T Red Force cricketers will play in another practice match today at the National Cricket Centre as head coach David Furlonge ramps up preparations ahead of the Super50 Cup in February.
On Monday, a Kieron Pollard XI beat a Yannic Cariah XI by three wickets with three batsmen getting half-centuries. Both Kirstan Kallicharan and Mark Deyal scored 57 while Jyd Goolie hit 54 runs.
However, Red Force head coach David Furlonge would like to see his set batsmen carry on. He told Guardian Media Sports on Tuesday, “I thought that with the type of wicket that was they should have gone on and made big hundreds having settled in. Yes, the fifties are a good total, but you really want to see players pressing for selection with hundreds. The bowlers on the other hand did a good job I thought. They bowled the correct line on this type of wicket, so they deserve some commendation.”
With three batsmen getting centuries before Christmas last year and now three further half-centuries, Furlonge says players are putting their hands up for selection and giving the selection panel a good headache to choose the squad to travel to Antigua for the tournament.
Furlonge will be forced to continue training and practice matches in this manner after the government did not clear the T&T Cricket Board to host an inter-zone tournament this month. “It’s probably not the ideal situation three weeks away from the competition. I would have liked it to be a little more competitive. The zonal competition would have made it more competitive and the players were gearing up for it. However, now we must find ways of making the practice matches competitive and giving the players incentive to go out there to do well,” he said.
The former Queen’s Park Cricket Club coach said there are two areas of interest he wants his side to work on. He explained, “We have to work on our fielding, and we have to work on our rotation of strike. I was watching the game on Monday and it was amazing that after 20 overs there were 60 runs and no rotation of the strike was going on so those are two key areas that I think we have to look at improving over the next couple of weeks.”
With the West Indies set to welcome Sri Lanka, South Africa, Australia and Pakistan in a packed season of cricket this year, Furlonge has warned his players to be ready should an opportunity come their way. “There are plenty of opportunities this year with the number of teams that are coming here so players have to continue knocking on the door when they get their chance and grab it with both hands,” he said.