Guyana seek redemption in T&T clash

CWI Women’s T20 Blaze…

By Brandon Corlette

The Shemaine Campbelle-led Guyana team will play Trinidad and Tobago in the opening round of the Colonial Medical Insurance T20 Blaze tournament. Hosts, Guyana will play the second of the three matches scheduled at the National Stadium Providence, from 14:00h local time today, Thursday March 28, 2019.

Speaking on the eve of the clash, Guyana captain, Shemaine Campbelle stated that the batters will have to step-sup their game. “The main game plan is for the batters to get runs on the board”, Campbelle declared. The Guyana captain, Campbelle, lauded the bowlers, especially Erva Giddings who was Guyana’s best bowler in the just-concluded Super50 tournament with 10 wickets to her name.
The Guyana team that played in the Super50 tournament that finished with 10 points and recorded two wins from five matches will not see wholesale changes made. The likes of Afruica Gentle and Lafona Gilgeous may be exposed at the latter part of the T20 Blaze tournament.
Campbelle, who finished with 211 runs for Guyana, the most in the team stated that during the practice sessions, the girls have been focusing on the batting which requires improvements. Apart from Campbelle only Shabika Gajnabi surpassed 100 runs in the five matches in the Super50 tournament.
The likes of Akaze Thompson, Lashuna Toussaint, Melanie Henry and Sheneta Grimmond will have to pull their weights in the opener against Trinidad and Tobago in the shorter format of the game. Tremayne Smartt and Erva Giddings, who are expected to form the core of the bowling line-up have all chipped in with useful knocks with the bat due to top-middle order batting failure.
Guyana bowling line-up consists of variety, left and right arm seamers, off-spinners and the lone left-arm spinner in Kaysia Schultz who played a handful of matches in the Super50. The last time Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago clashed in the opener of the Super50 format, Guyana were in control of the game when they had the top-order wickets in the bag, but critical moments lost by the Guyanese saw the Trinidadian lower-order capitalize and score a respectable total.
In that match, Guyana batting failed with only Shemaine Campbelle scoring 45 runs as she lacked support from her teammates with the bat. That was the trend through the entire Super50 tournament with the exception of Shabika Gajnabi who was the only other Guyanese to score a half-century in an innings.
Meanwhile, the Merissa Aguilleira-led Trinidad and Tobago team are a dominant force only conceding one defeat in the Super50 tournament. The top-order batters in Felicia Walters, Rachel Vincent, Stacy Ann King and Britney Cooper has all chipped in with use knocks. However, vice-captain, Reniece Boyce was the more consistent batter for the Trini divas while Merissa Aguilleira has found form with the bat in the final against Barbados where she looked her positive self, scoring runs freely. The bowling of the Trinidadians will continue to pose a threat with the likes of Karishma Ramharack, Leandra Ramdeen and Anisa Mohammed olaying as specialist spinners.
Ramharack finished the Super50 tournament with 13 wickets while Ramdeen had 10 and Anisa Mohammed had nine wickets. Apart from the pace that the Providence pitch offers with the new-ball early, the pitch supports the spinners and batters will have to weary since three matches will be played in one day.