Highlights from Windies Cricket TV
ICC Americas Coach Derek Perera talks about the Barbados game

ICC Americas coach Derek Perera provided some of his thoughts about the team’s loss to Barbados Pride on Wednesday (Jan 13) in a media interview. In that game, ICC America elected to bat then scored 202 all out from 49.4 overs. Barbados lost two early wickets but won with 206/6 after 36.3 overs.

Media: First of all another tough loss for your side today. What did you learn from this outing?

Derek Perera: “Ah well, I think we reached our target with respect to batting. So I’m happy with that – it was a lot better than (against) Jamaica. But, again, we lost it in the middle overs. We started really well and lost it in the middle overs that is generally our strength and that’s a bit disappointing. The batsmen showed marked improvements, so I was happy with that.”
[ICC Americas had tumbled to 76 all out from 26.4 overs chasing Jamaica’s 260/8 in the previous game. Against Barbados, Steve Taylor and Srimantha Wijeyeratne reached the 40’s while several others made a start in notching between 10 and 21.]

Asked about the decision to bat first, Derek Perera said: “ Definitely the pitch was a bit slow, but there was nothing weird about it.”

Asked about the Americas bowling during the Barbados innings, he replied : “That’s definitely an area where we can improve. I was really happy with the start but the middle overs was supposed to be our strength, decent overs with spin.”.

The questioner chipped in: “But you were up against a couple of top class batsmen as well…”

Derek Perera: “Definitely. We knew the team was going to change. Overall it was a good experience to play against guys of this calibre.”

***.Thanks to WICB Media for the audio recording. Audio transcribed by Eddie Norfolk.