Red Stripe Bowl: Barbados batting a bother

Barbados performed with the force of a tropical storm during the Red Stripe Bowl preliminaries. But if they are to win the tournament, they need to rapidly upgrade to hurricane strength.

In separate interviews on Sunday after a hard-fought win by 21 runs against the Southern Windwards that ensured qualification for the Final Four, chairman of selectors Richards Edwards described Barbados' first-phase performance as not that consistent, while team coach Hendy Springer rated it as just adequate.

The consensus from both men was that an improvement in the batting was needed when Barbados clash with Trinidad and Tobago in the second semifinal at the Kaiser Sports Club on Friday.

Everybody has to chip in and try and get runs. Our batsmen have got to buckle down and try and come to grips with the thing, Edwards said.

The batsmen could not have been faulted for a total of 178 for nine from 50 overs against Southern Windwards because the plain truth is that the pitch at the Enmore Community Centre was one in which the ball hardly got up above ankleheight.

But, Barbados made no impression the previous day when they found themselves reeling on 141 for eight before Pedro Collins' robust half-century reduced the margin of defeat against Guyana to 32 runs.

We need to get more of our specialist batsmen getting bigger scores, Springer said.

At least one of them has to bat through. When a specialist batsman does bat through, he is a guiding light to a pretty respectable total.

Edwards said the poor run of captain Sherwin Campbell was worrying, but he could not put his finger on the overall problem among the batsmen.

He used Floyd Reifer as an example.

He looked terribly out of sorts against Guyana. He didn't look like he was going to get a run, but against the Windwards he came and played the ball quite well under difficult conditions, the chairman of selectors said.

Barbados' victory on Sunday was their second in three preliminary matches and it was enough to earn them second place in Zone B for a semifinal clash with Zone A winners Trinidad and Tobago.

We could do a lot better. We have to do a lot better if we are to go and make our presence felt in Jamaica, Springer said.

The coach pointed to specific areas in the batting that have been causing problems.

As well as poor shot selection, we get very bogged down and can't find a single, he said.

Sometimes we get ourselves in a situation in the middle when the slow bowlers are on with only four men in the circle and we can't seem to be getting as many singles as we would like to get.

We also need to be lot sharper in running between the wickets.

Barbados finished behind hosts Guyana after defending a modest total against the Southern Windwards who had much more difficulty in coping with an unfriendly batting pitch.

This was a very good win. I don't think we scored as many runs as we would have liked, but taking into consideration the lack of bounce on the pitch, I thought that was a competitive score, Springer said.

Ryan Hinds, returning to the team after missing the previous day because of the viral illness that was troubling him from the start, put in a fine all-round performance to win the Man-Of-The-Match award.

His 59 off 83 balls may not be remembered for a long time, but it was worth close to a century bearing in mind the conditions.

There were essential supporting contributions from Dale Richards (40 off 74 balls) and Floyd Reifer (25 off 64 balls).

Collins and fellow left-arm fast bowler Ian Bradshaw both claimed three scalps as Southern Windwards were restricted to 157 for nine.