Nigel Reed
\nWhen you’re talking about the West Indies, it is as far East as it gets. Barbados is the home of the Kensington Oval, Sir Gary Sobers and the remainder of the 2012 Caribbean Twenty20.
\nCanada is among those for whom a change of scenery can’t come quickly enough. Despite bright starts in both their Group A games in Antigua, the momentum deserted them at crucial times resulting in heavy defeats to both the Windward and Leeward Islands. A worrying pattern is emerging. Canadian skipper Jimmy Hansra has twice won the toss and decided to bat first. He has backed his batsmen, himself included, to post a reasonable total and at least keep the opponent honest and earn the victory. Twice the plan has backfired. Far from compiling a competitive score, Canada has made it easy for the opposition. No-one is expecting the Canadians to win this tournament, or necessarily advance from the group stages but unfortunately Canada has only itself to blame. Too many batsmen have got themselves out. In this abbreviated form of cricket, risk-taking is par for the course. The object of the exercise, after all, is to score as many runs as possible in a comparatively short time frame. Inevitably players will gamble in search of reward. Taking a chance is one thing. Poor choice of shot or execution is quite another. Sadly a fair few Canadian batsmen have fallen in the latter category. I lost count of the number of players who threw away their wickets because of bad shots rather than being beaten by the skill of a bowler.
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\nIt didn’t have to be like this. Technically Canada does not rank among the best in the world but I would like to think there are enough decent players on duty to at least be competitive in the Caribbean. The fact is if you choose to bat and fail the game is virtually over as a contest before the run chase begins<\/p>\n
One big inning can be enough in T20. If one player is in the zone, all he needs is a willing and understanding partner while he takes on the bowling. Dwayne Smith smashed 86 off just 57 balls to lead Barbados to victory over previously unbeaten Jamaica. None of his teammates got past 20.<\/p>\n
Canada doesn’t have a Dwayne Smith, but it does have talent. Young opener Hiral Patel has shown a maturity in his stroke play and has twice helped his country to a brisk start during the Power Play. Raza-ur-Rehman, making his senior debut for Canada at this tournament, has twice got into the 30s.<\/p>\n
The supporting cast has been dreadfully weak. Hansra and his vice captain Rizwan Cheema have scored a total of five runs between them in four innings. Senior players in the middle order must contribute to allow those at the crease in the closing overs a chance to open their shoulders and go for their shots.<\/p>\n
Canada must improve or the ramifications could be costly. Ian Bishop, the former West Indies fast bowler, openly questioned Canada’s participation following a second thumping defeat. At the same time Bishop recognizes Canada has to play better teams more frequently to get better.<\/p>\n
Is that a chicken or an egg I hear?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nigel Reed When you’re talking about the West Indies, it is as far East as it gets. Barbados is the home of the Kensington Oval, Sir Gary Sobers and the remainder of the 2012 Caribbean Twenty20. Canada is among those for whom a change of scenery can’t come quickly enough. Despite bright starts in both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2492,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2491\/revisions\/2492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}