CENTURION, South Africa, CMC – Against all odds Guyana will open their quest for Champions League Twenty20 glory when they face star-studded Royal Challengers Bangalore in their opening game at SuperSport Park today.
Already forced to walk in the shadows of Trinidad and Tobago who played unbeaten to reach the final of the inaugural tournament last year, Guyana will seek something special in order to etch their names on the cash-rich competition.
They boast a squad with precious little international experience with their captain Ramnaresh Sarwan the most seasoned campaigner with 83 Tests and 156 One-Day Internationals.
However, though Travis Dowlin, Sewnarine Chattergoon and Narsingh Deonarine have played for West Indies they have just 18 Tests and 49 ODIs between them.
Further, none of the four have extensive T20 experience, playing just 27 T20 Internationals all told. Neither of them ply their trade in any of the blooming T20 domestic leagues around the world.
It means that Guyana will have the odds stacked against them but Sarwan remained upbeat yesterday over his side’s chances.
“We are confident that once we play to our potential we can go all the way and the pressure will be on the Challengers tomorrow especially what happened to Mumbai Indians on Friday,” said Sarwan referring to Mumbai’s shock loss to Highveld Lions in the tournament opening on Friday.
“Our batting is our strength and we have to stay focused and field well. We are all in this together and the team spirit is great. The ball should bounce a bit more than home but we have talked about that and we are ready.”
Guyana will depend heavily on their senior players and Sarwan will have to lead the batting on the bouncier pitches here, batting from the number three position.
Dowlin will need to fire at the top of the order while Chattergoon, who will partner him at the top, will also need to come to the party though he is not known to be the most aggressive of batsmen against the new ball.
Sarwan will be required to bat through to strengthen the innings while Deonarine’s presence in the middle order will be crucial.
Chris Barnwell, Derwin Christian and Royston Crandon will provide the lower order hitting while the exciting Jonathon Foo, who celebrated his 20th birthday on Friday, will be anxious to bring his fireworks to the attention of the international fraternity.
Off-spinner Lennox Cush and leg spinner Davindra Bishoo in the middle overs, will be charged with keeping Royal Challengers’ batsmen quiet while Esuan Crandon and Barnwell will need to be consistent with the new ball.
They face a side with a world class batting line up led by South African Jacques Kallis, India’s Rahul Dravid and Ross Taylor of New Zealand who will be looking to cash in on the minnows from the Caribbean.
In the bowling department, Indian leg-spinning legend Anil Kumble, speedster Dale Steyn and Kallis will keep Guyana busy, and most pundits will be giving Guyana little hope of clearing this first hurdle.
Coach Ravindranauth Seeram, however, was quick to remind that T20 cricket was played on the day.
“The difference between teams in T20 cricket is not as big as in the longer version and everyone is eager to get going,” he said.
“The first match will be important since they guys could be a bit nervous but seeing how the Mumbai Indians lost have given us a lot of confidence that we can create another upset tomorrow (Sunday).”
Guyana, who arrived on Wednesday, practiced at the Wanderers ground yesterday afternoon as they put the finishing touches on their preparation.
SQUADS:
GUYANA – Ramnaresh Sarwan (captain), Travis Dowlin, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Narsingh Deonarine, Chris Barnwell, Royston Crandon, Jonathon Foo, Derwin Christian, Lennox Cush, Esuan Crandon, Davendra Bishoo, Steven Jacobs, Assad Fudadin, Paul Wintz, Richard Ramdeen.
ROYAL CHALLENGERS – Rahul Dravid (captain), Anil Kumble, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun, Nayan Doshi, Dale Steyn, Manish Pandey, Virat Kohli, Ross Taylor, Dillon du Preez, Balachandra Akhil, Jacques Kallis, Cameron White, Robin Uthappa.
