Barbados have covered all bases as they prepared dutifully and purposefully to face Guyana in the second semi-final of this year’s NAGICO Super50 tournament in Trinidad and Tobago.
According to skipper Kevin Stoute yesterday’s training session was as good as it gets and today they will look to transfer the hard work in the nets to something meaningful – even historic – on the pitch at Queen’s Park Oval.
‘The work-out was brilliant as everyone put in the hard work to cover the bases as we look forward to the match tomorrow.
‘It’s going to be a really big match and everyone knows it. It’s a big game for this Barbados squad. Having not won the 50-over tournament for quite a while we have the perfect opportunity to go tomorrow [today] and play a good cricket game and work our way to the final,’ said Stoute.
‘The bowlers got a good run out and the batters struck a lot of balls so we covered all the areas we hoped to before the session. It is very important that we help each other and work together and that is what we are seeing in the Barbados team. Once we go ahead working as a team everything will fall into place.’
Barbados will face a strong Guyanese team featuring the batting expertise of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan.
This pair is among the best in modern-day Caribbean cricket and is also among the leading batsmen in the tournament. Sarwan has the most runs (151) in two innings and Chanderpaul third most (144) in two innings.
Both will start the match slightly under the weather as a flu bug has been going around in the Guyana camp. Several players, including skipper Chris Barnwell, batsman Narsingh Deonarine and young fast bowler Ronsford Beaton also visited a local medical facility for medical attention.
Guyana coach Eusan Crandon said he expected to put 11 fit and strong men on the park today.
‘We have had some illness but we will combat that,’ he said. A few players are not 100 per cent but they won’t let that keep them out of a semi-final. We will be ready.’
Guyana hold a statistical advantage over Barbados, having won 16 of the 32 times they have met, with Barbados having 14 victories with two no-decisions.
