TTCB – News

Confident T&T look for victory
January 21, 2010

TRINIDAD and Tobago batsman Williams Perkins on the go against Guyana
on Wednesday night in the T20 Charity Match for Haiti

TRINIDAD and Tobago will be aiming for an outright victory when their third round match in the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Four-Day tournament starts today against Barbados at Kensington Oval.

Daren Ganga’s team is fifth in the standing with six points while arch-rivals Barbados are second on 15 points with defending champions Jamaica the early leaders on 24 points.

An unchanged T&T team has been selected for the match against Barbados with full points a necessity if Trinidad and Tobago are to remain in contention for the regional title according to coach Kelvin Williams.

“As the coach I am very nervous knowing that if we can’t win this game we will have no chance of winning the regional tournament. This match is a very crucial game that is going to be played,” said Williams in a telephone interview from Barbados yesterday.

The national team lost its opening match to Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) in Jamaica before taking first innings honours in a draw against Guyana in Antigua and Barbuda.

Williams said that the team played “very good” in Antigua and it was “just a shame” they were not able to dismiss Guyana.

“The guys are confident now and what was important was the fact the batsmen scored over 400 runs and they have that confidence now and they know they can do this against Barbados,” said Williams.

The TT coach believes that the bowlers need to come to the forefront if the team is to have any chance of claiming maximum points which would put them back into the title race.

“The bowlers did not put the ball in the right areas against Guyana and the wicket was also very placid. We need to put the ball in the right areas and create the necessary opportunities to take wickets,” said Williams.

A quick and bouncy wicket is expected at the Kensington Oval prepared to benefit Bajan pacers Kemar Roach and Tino Best who have been bowling with a great deal of pace during the tournament.

“The wicket looks fast bowler friendly and they apparently are going with four seamers. I think the wicket could help our spinners and they could be very effective on this wicket and the conditions at the Kensington Oval,” said Williams.

All players went through a full session at the Kensington Oval yesterday with a great deal of the focus being put on catching and fielding.

“The sessions were quite productive and we worked on the various areas which went wrong in the first two matches and where we made mistakes. We did more catching, especially close catching and in the slip region. There were a lot of opportunities we grassed that we should have held on to in the last match especially close to the bat,” said Williams.