After being saved by rain against the Barbados Pride, the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force will have very little time to try to get their act together before facing the Leeward Islands in the second round of the Professional Cricket League four-day competition, bowling off on Friday at Warner Park.
The Red Force coach Gus Logie was optimistic that his side could have held on if rain did not intervene on the final day at Queen’s Park Oval on Monday, but at the same time the former West Indies cricketer was disappointed with his players’ first innings effort which saw the home side crash to 96 all out.
Logie is hoping the Red Force, who are fourth on five points, can get their game together against the Leewards who are at the bottom of the six-team standings with two points following their loss against the Guyana Jaguars over the weekend.
“Rain kept us in the game and in the tournament so we have to take it one step at a time now, get to the Leeward Islands and certainly put all departments of our game together,” Logie said following their drawn game against the Barbados Pride.
“At 213-5, I think if we had batted another 30, 40 overs we could have gotten close to 300-plus. At the end of the day, one could only hope to reach 300-plus and that would have been a good fillip for us. Whether we won the game or not would have been irrelevant at the end of the day but I think there is no excuse for the way we batted in the first innings,” the Red Force coach added.
He also wants his players to learn from the errors they made in their first innings and is hoping his players with international experience can step up at the regional level.
“One has to give credit to young Kraigg Brathwaite for the way he played. He showed everybody else what a player who has played at highest level can produce at this level,” said Logie.
“I think we have players of that quality who have had experience at the international level and we are hoping they can bring that level of performance to this level. “Taking a leaf from his book will be good for us going forward. It is only him and (Shane) Dowrich that held us up so all things considered and did not think we bowled that badly.
“We saw what happened to us in the first innings. We learned from that,” the Red Force coach added. “We just did not do well…No matter how well you prepare things just does not go your way. It was disappointing one day but it was better in the next. We planned well, we prepared well and there is no reason why we should not have executed better,” he added.
The Red Force leaves today for St Kitts and have made one change to the 13 man squad with Nicholas Pooran replacing the injured Ramnaresh Sarwan who also missed the opening match against the Pride. “He (Sarwan) is not going to go to the Leewards Islands. We feel another week will be good for him,” Logie said of Sarwan’s recovery.
Squad: Rayad Emrit (captain), Jason Mohammed (vice-captain), Evin Lewis, Lendl Simmons, Yannick Ottley, Nicholas Pooran, Denesh Ramdin, Akeal Hosein, Imran Khan, Shannon Gabriel, Marlon Richards, Bryan Charles, Yannic Cariah
