PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, (CMC) – Trinidad and Tobago Red Force head coach David Furlonge is under no illusion that it will be a walk in the park for his currently third-placed team to bounce back and win the West Indies Championship, but he says it is still within the hosts’ grasp.

He expressed that optimism after Red Force fell to a 187-run loss against Leeward Islands Hurricanes in their third-round encounter on Saturday, and ahead of the penultimate round of the competition on Wednesday.

“We know it will not be easy but we have a group of fighters and we know we have to fight to win it,” Furlonge said, according to the Trinidad Express newspaper.

Trinidad and Tobago Red Force’s Yannic Cariah struck his fifth first class hundred but it was not enough to stop the Leeward Islands Hurricanes from crushing the host team by 187 runs in round three of the West Indies Championship.

Red Force, who ended the second round in second position behind Barbados Pride who remain at the top of the six-team table with 47.2 points, are now on 43 points, slipping one spot to third after their loss to Hurricanes who are now in second place with 46.4 points. Harpy Eagles (41.4 points), Jamaica Scorpions (29.6 points) and Windward Islands Volcanoes (15.6 points) complete the standings.

The top four teams have two wins and one loss from their three games in the tournament so far.

Furlonge said the outcome of Red Force’s fourth-round fixture against defending champions Pride at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, beginning Wednesday, will be crucial.

“I believe we will still be in the race for the title and it may come down to the game between Barbados and ourselves, so the campaign is still very much alive,” he said.

The head coach added that while the team was disappointed in their loss against Hurricanes last Saturday, they will be working hard to bounce back.

“The guys are still confident that we can pull off two victories in the last two games and do our part to try and lift the title,” said Furlonge, whose franchise will be without Anderson Phillip, Jayden Seales and Akeal Hosein for the remaining matches as they have been selected for the West Indies’ tour of Netherlands, May 31-June 4, as well as the June 8-12 tour to Pakistan.

In the fifth and final round of the West Indies Championship, beginning June 1, Red Force will play Guyana Harpy Eagles at Queen’s Park Oval.

The match against Pride, however, is now the focus and Furlonge said in preparation for that fixture, Red Force will be working on correcting their mistakes from the Hurricanes match, particularly on the batting side.

“I think it is a matter of looking at how we bat in the nets and looking back at how you got out and not looking for an excuse but instead looking at what you should have done differently in playing that ball,” he said.

“We will go into the nets and work on that top-order batting on Monday and Tuesday and try to get them batting long in those sessions and see how it goes in the next game.”

Looking back on the match against Hurricanes, Furlonge blamed a lack of patience with the bat and ball for the hosts’ defeat.

Resuming the final morning of the match on 143 for six, Red Force folded before lunch for 271 in their second innings to taste their first defeat of the regional first class championship.

“We weren’t patient enough in the batting and bowling to do well. The bowlers constantly bowled different lines and the batsmen who got starts didn’t carry on because we weren’t patient enough to leave the ball alone outside the off-stump,” Furlonge said. They [Hurricanes] were more patient than us and I think that is why they won the game.”