SPORTS
Come on Beckles
Trinidad and Tobago women’s cricket team coach Kelvin Williams is delighted his side won all five of their matches on the Barbados tour, but said his unit cannot rest on their laurels and can still improvements are made.
TT beat Barbados in three T20 matches and two 50-over matches in the week-long tournament which ended on Wednesday.
TT started the tournament with a four-wicket win in a T20 match on 19 May.
In the first 50-over match on 20 May, TT prevailed with a 44-run victory and two days later won the second T20 by seven wickets.
On Monday, TT thrashed the Barbadians by 89 runs in the second 50-over encounter and then finished the tournament with a perfect record on Wednesday, completing an eight-wicket victory in the third and final T20.
Barbados were without their two West Indies ace players in Deandra Dottin and Hayley Matthews.
Williams said: “The tournament was good for us. (It was) basically just to see where we are. The regionals are just around the corner so it is very important for us to have this tournament against Barbados.”
Speaking more about how the tournament helped prepare for the 2022 West Indies Women’s Regional Cricket competition to be played next month in Guyana, Williams said: “Winning against Barbados 5-0 will certainly you have faith But of course, like I said, they were missing two players and when you go to regionals those two players will be here. Can we have the same confidence going into the game against Barbados, knowing that we just went through a series? Yes. We just have to take it one day at a time, one game at a time. But certainly the confidence to move forward is there.”
Despite the perfect record in Barbados, Williams said there are a few areas TT can improve on including cutting back on wide deliveries and being more clinical in this area.
“If we could minimize that (stuff) and if we could get that pitch up to 100 percent (that would be great),” the TT coach said. We still have a few areas to work on and be a perfect team on the pitch. Those are the two areas of concern.”
Dottin and Matthews had overseas commitments in other leagues and were unavailable.
Williams said, “I know Barbados were without Hayley and Dottin, but they still have some good players around … our plans were there, they executed the plans well and came out victorious.”
Williams highlighted several players in the team that hosted the tournament, including West Indies women’s player Karishma Ramharack.
“She adapted and adapted quite well. She batted well, she bowled well and fielded brilliantly. If you can point a finger, point a finger at the Ramharack because of its outstanding performance.”
Williams said some of the inexperienced players stepped up to the plate as well.
“We’ve got some youngsters (in) Steffie Soogrim…she was the pick of the bowlers for me and then Kamara Ragoobar again bowled well.”
Despite the naming of the players, Williams said it was a commendable team performance.
One of Soogrim’s best efforts came in the opening 50-over match, as she grabbed 5/36 with the left-arm spinner and scored 36. In the same match, Ragoobar scored 31.
In the second 50-over contest, Ramharack had a brilliant match hitting 55 and later returning to take 5/13 with her off-spinner.
