DURBAN, South Africa, CMC – Guyana coach Ravindra Seeram says he expects a radically different approach to his side’s batting in their next match against the powerful Mumbai Indians.
The Caribbean side’s batsmen struggled in the opening game of the Champions League Twenty20 on Sunday, mustering a meagre 103 from their 20 overs against Royal Challengers Bangalore at SuperSport in Centurion.
They went scoreless from 65 balls, a statistic Seeram stressed needed to be addressed in tomorrow’s game against Mumbai.
“Even in the Caribbean Championship we struggled with too many dot balls before (Jonathon) Foo stepped it up towards the end of the innings,” Seeram said.
“This is something (being more aggressive) that we will be working on in the nets here.”
He added: “I have told the batsmen that this is T20 cricket and they have to play shots, they have to be positive without being reckless. Ideally we would want (Ramnaresh) Sarwan to bat through the innings.”
Entering as the underdogs, Guyana lost the Group B fixture by nine wickets with 46 balls to spare, in an overall listless display.
They will now face a wounded Mumbai who have lost their opening two matches of the tournament and are desperately in need of a win to remain alive.
Seeram said with the anxiety of the opening game behind them, he expected Guyana to settle down and produce a stronger performance.
“We have had a frank chat with the guys after what happened on Sunday and they know that they have to step it up since people all over the world are looking at us,” the former first class batsman noted.
“The disappointing thing is that we know we are a much, much better team than the way we performed and we are looking at tapes of the Mumbai Indians and also working on correcting our mistakes from the first game.
“We are working hard physically, technically and mentally to be ready for the different conditions here and after Sunday I don’t expect nervousness to affect the guys.”
