BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Jamaica Scorpions head coach Robert Samuels believes his side has gained valuable momentum with their “vital” win over tournament favourites Barbados Pride here Thursday night.
Previously unbeaten in six outings, Pride slumped to a 74-run defeat in the day/night contest at Kensington Oval as the Scorpions won their fourth straight to build up a head of steam ahead of next week’s Regional Super50 semi-finals in Antigua.
“It (the win) was very vital. You do not want to lose twice to any team in the semi-finals,” said the former Test batsman.
“Barbados beat us in the first game. I thought we should have won that game, scoring 191. They got there with just one wicket [left]. Today we scored 250 and I thought it was enough.
“I must give Barbados credit. They bowled very well in the middle overs [especially] the two spinners (Ashley Nurse and Jomel Warrican) … and they pulled us back. At one stage it looked as if we would have scored 400 but Nurse bowled extremely well.”
Scorpions started the tournament with a shock defeat to Combined Campuses and Colleges Marooners and lost their second when they narrowly went down to Pride six days later.
Since then, Scorpions have hardly missed a step and Samuels said it had been important to get the early jitters out of the way before the knock out round.
“In competitions like this you will lose one and you do not want to lose one in the semi-finals or the final so to get that one out of the way [was important],” Samuels pointed out.
“We took CCC for granted … fortunately or unfortunately we played CCC at their home ground which they knew better than us and we took it for granted, became complacent and we lost.”
Since then, Scorpions stepped up their game, with their batsmen especially finding their touch. In their last four outings, they have cracked 250 three times and got 204 in the other game.
However, Samuels said he still wanted further improvement from his batsmen, especially during the middle overs when they tended to lose their way.
“We are stumbling and fumbling during the middle overs between 15 and 40, so it’s to get the batsmen to stay there and bat the middle overs and to get us to the 50 overs,” he explained. “This is the third time we are getting to 50 overs and we have been winning, so that is very necessary to bat all 50.”
He added: “I want to see it (the batting) come together because I’ve been getting half-centuries but I’ve not been getting any hundreds, and I’m hoping the hundreds will come in the semi-finals or the finals.”
Scorpions, who lie second in the Group B,standings behind leaders Pride, face ICC Americas in their final game at Windward Cricket Club today.
