PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Head coach Hendy Springer has blasted the quality of Barbados Pride’s fielding in the Regional Super50 final and says it was the principal reason for their demise against Trinidad and Tobago Red Force at Queen’s Park Oval on Saturday.
Pride produced a ragged performance in the field as Trinidad and Tobago Red Force piled up 270 for seven, and were then dismissed for 198 in the 43rd over, to lose by 72 runs.
“We fielded poorly. Very, very poorly. It was one of the worst Barbados fielding performances I have seen for a long, long time,” Springer lamented.
“Plus some of the bowling was inaccurate as well. Credit to Trinidad, they batted well, they weathered the storm. We just couldn’t get it right at any point in time.”
Pride boasted a strong XI, with ten players having already represented West Indies at international level.
In contrast, Red Force boasted a mixture of youth and experience, with the likes of rookies like off-spinner Jon-Russ Jaggesar and batsman Evin Lewis combining with more senior players in a competitive unit.
Red Force were also buoyed by the vocal home fans but Springer downplayed suggestions Pride had been overwhelmed by big game pressure.
“We’ve got a lot of guys here who have played in finals because the majority of guys played in the last final we would have played here,” the former Barbados off-spinner noted.
“I think it was a matter of probably a loss of concentration, short attention span or whatever the case maybe. We should have fielded a lot better and therefore would have had to chase a lot less runs to chase.”
Sent in on a good pitch, Red Force were carried by West Indies left-hander Darren Bravo who made 97, opener Kyle Hope who struck 34 and captain Jason Mohammed who weighed in with 31.
In their turn at the crease, Pride struggled and only Shai Hope with a patient half-century and West Indies all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite with an attacking 46, showed any real enterprise.
Springer said the toss had not been a critical factor as Pride needed to execute whether they had bowled or batted first.
“To me it (toss) didn’t matter really. You looked to extract whatever moisture was up front but for that you had to bowl accurately, you had to field very, very well and that is something we did not do at all.”
Springer was also quick to dismiss the role player fatigue had in the defeat because of the hectic schedule in the tournament, where matches were played every two days in the preliminary round.
“A lot of these guys are professional cricketers and this is expected of them,” said Springer.
“We played a lot of games in a short space of time, yes, but we should have still had that motivation coming into a final – that you had to had to work really hard to get into in the first place – to show a better level of awareness.”
Springer said Pride required a disciplined batting effort in order to reach their target but argued the batsmen had not taken responsibility for the innings.
Pride were reduced to 31 for four in the 10th over, a situation they failed to recover from despite a 59-run stand for the seventh wicket between Brathwaite and Hope.
“We would have had to have batted well. The important thing is not to change and chop all the time but to get guys in certain positions taking responsibility and that is the thing that didn’t happen …,” Springer contended.
“We needed to bat the first ten overs unscathed and we didn’t do that. We were 60-odd for five at one stage and it’s difficult to recover from a situation like that.”