Nanan blasts impatient batsmen

Former national cricket captain Rangy Nanan said yesterday he cannot come to terms with the fact that Trinidad and Tobago couldn’t get 175 runs for victory against Barbados in the semi-final of the Red Stripe Bowl on Friday. "To say that I am disappointed is an understatement. I just cannot come to terms with the defeat. After the magnificent job done by the bowlers to restrict the Barbadians to 174 runs, I thought we had it but the batsman had other ideas,” Nanan said. “The batsmen lacked patience and couldn’t get the target. I thought that either skipper Daren Ganga or opener Imran Jan should have batted through the innings. These guys should have realised that they are not ‘ball beaters’ and hence should have been patient and gather the runs steadily.

“The batting throughout the series was a problem and if a team is batting so badly they cannot expect to win a title. The only spark in the batting was the ‘Shazie’ (Shazam Babwah). By far he was the most consistent batsman on the team and the others were not joining him,” said Nanan. The Clico Preysal batsman had scores of 102 not out, 47 and 30. Nanan was high in praise for the bowlers however. "I feel it for the bowlers, they did such a good job but still missed out on the title. They contained a very good Barbadian batting line-up and gave their batsmen a more than reasonable score to chase.” He singled out leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine who finished the series with 12 wickets. “Dinas was simply great. He bowled well with a lot of control and he seems ready to get back into the top flight,” said Nanan. The last time Trinidad and Tobago won the regional limited overs title was in 1996, when Rajindra Dhanraj grabbed a hat-trick in the final against Guyana. TT have won six regional limited overs tournaments. The last First Class title was won in 1985 under the leadership of Nanan. Since then the closest TT have reached is a final spot against the Leewards in 1996 when they went under at Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre.