Emrit hoping for better batting in final

Trinidad Express article.

Port of Spain, Trinidad - Trinidad and Tobago all-rounder Rayad Emrit has admitted that the hosts’ batting has not been the best during the NAGICO Super50 tournament, but hopes it will make the difference in Saturday’s final at Queen’s Park Oval.

T&T’s batting has not peaked—they’ve had a score of 241 in losing to Barbados, and winning totals of 144 for five, 100 for three and 51 for three, all chasing against Leeward Islands, Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) and yesterday’s semi-final with Jamaica.

Asked whether the bowling has carried the team, Emrit replied: “As the games gone by you can say yes, the bowlers have been doing a tremendous job so far.

“Hopefully the batters can come up trumps in the final, but the bowlers are not going to let up; we know we have a big part to play in the game and hopefully we can go all the way and win this tournament.”

Now that they have reached the final, though, Emrit has his eyes set on the trophy.

“The captain (Dwayne Bravo) always says the more we play the better we get,” he stated. “Each team usually have a bad game in a tournament like this, and for us it was the first game. Hopefully we can go on to win the tournament now. We’re on a high yes, but we can’t be complacent, we need to continue playing hard and working hard at our game.”

Emrit said T&T were able to restrict Jamaica to 49 all out by exploiting the bowling conditions that suited the pacers. He credited Bravo and Ravi Rampaul, the new ball bowlers, with setting the tone for the team by removing the top five batsmen very cheaply, allowing himself and mystery spinner Sunil Narine to continue the good work.

A good start in the match, Emrit said, was “important”.

“We know that they had a lot of batting, with Russell at the end there, who is very dangerous, we know that we not going to take anything lightly. So we know we had to continue the good work that the guys set on top, and it was just for us to continue.

“We knew that the Jamaicans won their three preliminary games,” he continued, “and they’re not going to lie down and let us run over them. But the guys at the top did the job for us, and we’re just thankful that it was this easy at the end.”

First Published In The Trinidad Express.