Harpy Eagles planning for Barbados Pride

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The Guyana Harpy Eagles are going into their third-round match against West Indies Championship leaders Barbados Pride next week cognizant of the tough challenge they will face but confident of doing well if the game plan is executed.

Part of that game plan, said head coach Esuan Crandon on Friday, is for batsmen to put their opponents under pressure early and build on that upper hand.

“Barbados is always a tough match-up for us. They have some really good quality players in their batting line-up and their team, so a lot of experience – a lot of guys who would have played for the West Indies and so on. So, I don’t expect any different in this game,” he said ahead of their May 18-21 match at Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain.

“It is important that we are able to execute our plans really well – get an upper hand early and have a good start in that game and try to put them under some pressure.”

Crandon said the batsmen will have to do much better than they did in the first two rounds.

Guyana are fourth in the six-team standings on 21.4 points after losing to Leeward Islands by an innings and 57 runs in the second round. They won their opening match of the tournament against the Windward Islands by one wicket.

“We want to try and play our best cricket and we have not done so as yet. When you look back at the first two games in the tournament, I still think we need to put it together and find a way to get our batters to score big runs and that has been our major concern,” the head coach said.

Crandon is therefore hoping the more experienced players in the squad to step up to the plate.

“It’s just a matter of being more disciplined and applying a bit more, and when you get good starts be able to capitalize on them and try to go as deep as possible, and that is something we have been stressing a lot on recently,” he said.

“Hopefully those guys would take more responsibility and want to bat more and show more fire in their belly. We know they’re very experienced players…they know the game well, so it’s just a matter of being disciplined enough to execute their skills really well, consistently throughout the period they are going to be batting, and try and score big and put the team in a good position. It will also give them a good chance of selection to a West Indies team.”

Crandon said his men, who had their final practice session at home on Thursday, will utilize the few days in Trinidad before their match against Barbados Pride to prepare physically, mentally, tactically, and technically.

Guyana Harpy Eagles Full Squad: Leon Johnson (Captain), Keemo Paul, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Tevin Imlach, Vishaul Singh, Akshaya Persaud, Veerasammy Permaul, Anthony Bramble, Gudakesh Motie, Nial Smith, Demetri Cameron, Antony Adams, Kevin Sinclair, Ronsford Beaton.
(CMC)