Red Steel aim for second CPL victory

The Red Steel opened their campaign with a seven-wicket triumph over Barbados Tridents last Saturday in Grenada while the Amazon Warriors, in the curtain-raiser last Friday, eked out a narrow two-wicket win over the Antigua Hawksbills.

The game will be also a showdown of respective captains, with Dwayne Bravo of the Red Steel — the West Indies and Trinidad and Tobago 50- over team skipper, going up against Denesh Ramdin — the leader of the Windies Test and TT First Class team.

There will be a lot of familiarities between both teams, with TT players (present and past) off-spinner Sunil Narine, opening batsman Lendl Simmons and all-rounder Navin Stewart in the Amazon Warriors fold.

Narine had a sensational bowling display, in terms of economy rate, on Friday as he conceded only three runs in his four-over spell.

On the flip-side, the Red Steel middle-order duo of Darren Bravo and Ross Taylor struck half-centuries on Saturday, with Darren unbeaten on 54 while Taylor hit 62.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Red Steel manager Colin Borde stated that the team planned to have an extensive session last night at the match venue “where we will have night catching and so on.”

He continued, “preparations have gone extremely well. Everybody’s focussed. Everybody’s up for it. The players are lively and ready to go. We expect a good crowd and we expect a very good contest.”

The opening pair of Nasir Jamshed and Evin Lewis failed to fire on Saturday and Borde commented, “we got home with three wickets down so we did fairly well.

“There was a great partnership in the middle between (Darren) Bravo and Taylor. But we have faith and confidence in both Evin Lewis and Jamshed. They’re both good players.”

Captain Dwayne Bravo, in the pre-game media conference, said, “it’s always a challenge playing against Guyana Amazon Warriors as the side has lots of good players, international and local.”

He also promises a good game between two good sides. “Last year they beat us two games to one, but this is a new year, and we’re confident.”

On the other side of the coin, Ramdin noted, “confidence is also high in the Amazon Warriors camp. Practice has been good, and (the players) are familiar with the conditions.” He added that the team who handles the pressure better will come out on top.

As far as the coaches are concerned, Red Steel’s Simon Helmot said the team are ready to go. “Great Stadium, fantastic training conditions, we’re well prepared to play a powerful unit.” And Amazon Warriors’ Roger Harper stated that his squad was happy to win the first game despite not playing very well. They’re looking forward to playing better (today).