Red Force energised after humbling Jaguars, says Da Silva

– Simmons set to return for Pride clash

After a 93-run win against Guyana Jaguars in the sixth round, the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force team have hit the reboot button.
Speaking after the victory against the Jaguars, the Red Force opener Joshua Da Silva, who scored 49 runs in the second innings, told this reporter that the team were overjoyed.
“To beat Guyana Jaguars so convincingly, the guys are extremely happy, but we know we have more games to play and our focus is to win as many as possible,” Da Silva said after the victory. Red Force, who will play the Barbados Pride from Thursday, February 7, will be boosted with the return of Lendl Simmons.
Da Silva, who was the best Trinidad and Tobago youth player in 2018, has played

three matches thus far in the 2018-2019 season and has scored 133 runs. With the senior opening batsmen missing the last round, Da Silva was given the opportunity to open the batting against the fiery Jaguars bowlers where he had scores of 0 and 49. The highly talented 20-year old told this publication that opening the batting for his country was a huge deal –especially at his home ground.
A wicket-keeper by nature, Da Silva told Guyana Times Sport that he was hoping for a better knock in the first innings, but he got a score in the second innings, although he missed out on his maiden half-century. Da Silva will be aiming to improve on leaving balls at the earlier stages in his innings. The victory against the Jaguars may be the opening for greatness for the Red Force team, with five rounds to play.
The Denesh Ramdin-led team will continue to depend on their senior players in Imran Khan, Jason Mohammed and Ravi Rampaul in their return clash against the Barbados Pride. Red Force departed on Monday for Barbados. With Lendl Simmons in the squad, they will be looking to continue their winning ways and

Simmons is likely to bring experience to the table.
Simmons, who has retired from Test cricket, has played 94 First-Class matches, scoring 5110 runs at an average of 32.54 with 10 centuries and 23 hundreds to his name. The 34-year-old top-order batsman may replace the struggling Teon Webster at number three to stabilise the batting order. The in-form Jeremy Solozano is the Red Force’s leading batsman thus far this season with 338 runs, including one century and one half-century. Jason Mohammed (191), who scored some invaluable runs against the Jaguars, will be aiming to build on that innings to score runs for his team.
Veteran leg-spinner Imran Khan remains the star with the ball for the Red Force this season with 25 wickets at a stellar average of 18.60 with his best bowling figures being 7-47. Right-arm fast bowler Anderson Phillip has 12 wickets for the Red Force with best figures of 5-94.
The stunning performance against the dominant Jaguars unit has given Red Force the confidence to win matches, and they will be eying a move up the points table with five matches to play. (Brandon Corlette)