WHEN Guyana’s Amazon Warriors go up against St Lucia Zouks in the feature game of the double header in the inaugural Limacol Caribbean Premier League at the Guyana National Stadium from 20:00hrs tonight, Ramnaresh Sarwan and his team will be looking for their third successive win while Darren Sammy’s St Lucia Zouks will seek to chalk up their first. In the first encounter, Christopher Gayle’s Jamaica Tallawahs, who suffered a humiliating eight wicket loss to the Amazon Warriors Friday night last, will seek to redeem themselves when they face up against Marlon Samuels’ Antigua Hawksbill from 15:00hrs (3pm).
In an invited comment with Chronicle Sport yesterday, ahead of his team’s intense training session which took place in sweltering heat at the venue for tonight’s encounter, Sammy said the Amazon Warriors will be a tough team to beat at home, but he is still confident the Zouks can pull off the win.
“The Amazon Warriors is a tough team to beat at home, but once we played to our full potential, we can be victorious. We will need to execute much better, for if you look at the game against the Barbados Tridents, we bowled well in the first 10 overs and took wickets with the new ball and stuff.
“We did not bowl too well in the end, especially in the last four overs. Also, we had a very good first 10 overs, wherein we scored about 90 odd runs and then we lost our way in the middle. But we just touched on a few things, such as good all round cricket and look to execute better against the Amazon Warriors” said Sammy, who also leads the West Indies in International T20 fixtures.
Touching on the camaraderie within the team, Sammy said it is good, especially coming off a 10 day preparatory camp in St. Lucia and all they are looking to do is to transform all that was practised at the camp, into the middle.
“We need to have good intensity in the field, backed by good sensible batting and proper execution with our bowling, especially in the later stages of the Amazon Warriors’ innings.”
He welcomed the experience of Pakistan’s Misbah Ul Haq and South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs, highlighting the knowledge they have brought with them into a dressing room that is filled with young exciting cricketers.
Looking at Gibbs go about in the training sessions and his work ethic alone should be motivation enough for the youngsters, while the way Misbah goes about practicsing, building an innings with the young batsmen in the team, that in itself can send a good signal to the opposition.
We just got to learn from each other and so far I have encouraged the guys to do just that, especially the local guys from the Windward Islands. We know Tino Best always bring his energy and enthusiasm and we all rally around each other in the dressing room and it will not be different for the game against the Amazon Warriors tomorrow night (tonight).”
On the other side of the pavilion lies the undefeated Guyana Amazon Warriors, whose head coach Roger Harper believes that the team won their game from playing basic cricket and will not differ from that when they face up against the Zouks tonight, whom he feels is a good team with solid all round strength.
Quizzed on his preparation for his team’s third opponents tonight and whether he is satisfied, Harper said, “We had a little session today, by tomorrow (today) we will meet and discuss what we think are the things we need to zoom in on and we will be ready come game time.
I think we played well in all departments when we faced the Tallawahs and we would certainly like to continue in that vain and even take it up a notch, in the hunt for our third successive win tonight and while we are delighted to be in the position we are in, but we know our next game is always an important game for us.”
Harper opined that the two wins which were scored against the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel and the Jamaica Tallawahs would have done a lot for the team’s confidence, but he has ensured his players are aware that they start the next game from scratch and they look to employ the same things that brought them their success so far.
The final XI for today’s two matches will be chosen from – Guyana Amazon Warriors – Ramnaresh Sarwan (captain), Sunil Narine, Mohammad Hafeez, Lendl Simmons, Denesh Ramdin, James Franklin, Christopher Barnwell, Krishmar Santokie, William Perkins, Steven Jacobs, Keon Joseph, Trevon Griffith, Narsingh Deonarine, Veerasammy Permaul and Martin Guptil.

St. Lucia Zouks: Darren Sammy (captain), Herschelle Gibbs, Misbah Ul Haq, Albie Morkel, Tino Best, Tamim Iqbal, Shane Shillingford, Devon Smith, Andre Fletcher, Gary Mathurin, Liam Sebastian, Dalton Polius, Kavem Hodge, Kenroy Peters and Nelon Pascal.

Jamaica Tallawahs: Christopher Gayle (captain), Muttiah Muralitharan, Andrew Richardson, Ahmed Shehzad, Vernon Philander, Danza Hyatt, Carlton Baugh Jnr, Nikita Miller, Jacques Rudolph, Chadwick Walton, Dave Bernard Jr, Akeem Dewar, Andre Russell, Jermaine Blackwood and Nkrumah Bonner.

Antigua Hawksbills: Marlon Samuels (Captain), Johnson Charles, Rahkeem Cornwall, Sheldon Cotterrell, Jahmar Hamilton, Montcin Hodge, Justin Kemp, Anthony Martin, Dave Mohammed, Ricky Ponting, Kieron Powell, Kemar Roach, Ben Rohrer, Devon Thomas and Gavin Tonge.

Meanwhile, the points table at the end of Guyana Amazon Warriors’ last contest against the Jamaica Tallawahs read as below:
Teams Mat Won Lost Tied N/R Pts Net RR For Against
Guyana Amazon Warriors 2 2 0 0 0 4 +1.588 273/34.3 253/40.0
Barbados Tridents 2 2 0 0 0 4 +0.725 315/40.0 286/40.0
Antigua Hawksbills 1 0 1 0 0 0 -0.600 134/20.0 146/20.0
St Lucia Zouks 1 0 1 0 0 0 -0.850 152/20.0 169/20.0
Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel 1 0 1 0 0 0 -0.950 136/20.0 155/20.0
Jamaica Tallawahs 1 0 1 0 0 0 -2.288 117/20.0 118/14.