THE Trinidad and Tobago Red Force slumped to their second consecutive defeat of the West Indies Cricket Board Professional Cricket League, losing to leaders Guyana Jaguars by an innings and 60 runs on final day of their four-day contest at Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain yesterday.
The Red Force were comprehensively beaten after the home team’s batting failed to deliver yet again as they were dismissed for 234 in their second innings just before tea.
The T&T batting also failed in the first innings after the hosts slipped from 170 for four to 198 all out on the first day of the match Friday. Guyana on the other hand made batting look easy, posting 492 for eight declared as they kept the T&T side in the field for the better part of two days.
Yesterday younger T&T batsmen came out fighting to try and salvage something for their team.
Continuing from an overnight position of 58 for four, and still trailing Guyana by 236 runs, Akeal Hosein came to the party, hitting a patient 64 off 133 balls with ten fours as he played the Guyana spinners Veerasammy Permaul and Devendra Bishoo with confidence to prolong his team’s demise.
Nicholas Pooran also had a late cameo, scoring a run-a-ball 47, which included six fours and two sixes, but that was too little too late for the hosts.
The Red Force skipper Rayad Emrit was disappointed with the results thus far but said don’t count them out just yet.
He said the players have only themselves to blame but he is also optimistic they can turn things around.
“It is a repeat of the previous three games. Our batsmen just not getting the runs on the board,” Emrit lamented after their second consecutive defeat at the Oval this season.
“We tried to stick with the same guys to give them a fair run but it just did not work for us. We wanted our bowlers to come up trump again as well but I think what really let us down was the fielding. We dropped a couple of catches that cost us,” he explained.
He said the Guyana batsmen did not really give them any chances and those that they did get, they could not hold on to.
“They applied themselves much better than us and their captain led from the front. They had a ninth wicket partnership of over 100 runs. I know the guys were tired, but that is not an excuse. This is professional cricket and we need to step up,” the T&T skipper added.
“We are not counting ourselves out of the title hunt. We have a bit of a break now and there are still six matches left in the four-day season and it is cricket and anything can happen, but we are in a tough position now with only ourselves to blame at this point in time,” said Emrit.
“We have a break now, then we have a few away games. We, as players, need to use this time to reflect. There are too many excuses now. We don’t need excuses, we need solutions. The coaching staff is there to help us, but I think as players we need to get solutions,” he added.
The four-day tournament will take a two-month break before resuming in February next year while the Nagico Super50 is scheduled for January next year.
