DURBAN, South Africa (CMC) – Guyana face the powerful but luckless Mumbai Indians in their crucial second match of the Champions League Twenty20 today, looking to rebound from a sound whipping in their first match earlier this week.
The Caribbean side went down to Royal Challengers Bangalore by nine wickets in a one-sided affair in Centurion last Sunday but will need a win against Mumbai if they are to retain any serious hopes of reaching the next round of the cash-rich competition.
Their challenge will be made even more difficult as the star-studded Mumbai also need a big victory after surprisingly losing their two opening games.
Guyana captain Ramnaresh Sarwan said, however, they would be focused on grabbing the all-important win, maintaining that Mumbai were beatable on the day.
“They have lost twice and they have to beat us badly to stay in the competition so they will have to take more chances,” Sarwan said.
“This is bat against ball and not names. We saw how 12 came off just three balls of Harbhajan (Singh) as the Australians (South Australia) won in the last over (on Tuesday) and Sachin has not looked in the best of form although he is always a great danger to any bowler in the world.
“This is cricket and we have to believe that we can win and go out there and play hard, positive cricket and enjoy this whole experience.”
Guyana did not look the part against Royal Challengers, falling for 103 after being sent in and then failing to bother the opposing batsmen as they rattled up a comfortable victory with 46 balls to spare.
Coach Ravindra Seeram said it was important for the players to produce a vastly improved performance regardless of the nature of the opponents.
“Yes they know their roles and we have a plan. It’s now up to them to go out there and execute it,” the former first class batsman said.
“Forget about who you are playing against and just go out and play your natural game and be confident in your ability.”
Mumbai, meanwhile, will be anxious to crush the Guyanese and erase the memory of the painful losses over the last week.
They were upset in the tournament-opener by Highveld Lions of South Africa and then lost a tense encounter to South Australia on Tuesday.
Captain Sachin Tendulkar, one of several stars in the Mumbai side, said they would be gunning for a handsome win over the Guyanese.
“We have to win both the (remaining) games convincingly. Whatever is in our control, we control that. We can’t control how other teams fare but we have control on how we play,” the Indian batting legend pointed out.
“We definitely will have to play better. We have scored 176 and 180 runs in both the matches. So we have been batting well and it is actually the fielding and a bit of bowling which is a concern.
“Everyday you can’t bowl four brilliant overs or score a fifty or field brilliantly. Sometimes lapses do happen and yesterday (Tuesday) was just one of those days. Our intention is to win really big against Guyana and see what happens from there.”
Mumbai also boast the West Indies duo of Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, along with seamers Lasith Malinga and Zaheer Khan.