By Ravi Madholall in Toronto
Former Guyana opening batsman Krishna Arjune firmly believes that Guyana Amazon Warriors did not play to their true potential at the Eliminator stage after they were beaten by six wickets to Trinibago Knight Riders (TKR) Thursday evening at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy Stadium, Trinidad and Tobago.
The Warriors posted up a competitive 159-6 from the allotment of 20-overs while the home team, in response, easily reached the target with 12 balls to spare. With the triumph, TKR was set to meet St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the 2017 HERO Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 final at the same venue under lights on Saturday.
Krishna Arjune
“I think Guyana Amazon Warriors did play their game to one hundred percent; the fielding was disappointing while we could have scored more runs which will be more pressure for TKR; the captaincy of Reyad Emrit was also disappointing, he should have be more proactive up-front with the spinners and pacers,” the right-handed Arjune declared.
Since the inauguration of the CPLT20 in 2013, Guyana combination have been able to make three finals but have never prove their superiority in this exciting version with the prestigious trophy.
The 35-year-old Arjune, who is currently plying his trade in Canada representing Hawaiian Arctic Cricket Club in the Scarborough Cricket Association limited-over tournament, stated that Guyana Amazon Warriors team was loaded with enough talented T20 players but some of them failed to live up the expectations.
“Obviously, Guyana had a good team to reach this far; the way they started off by losing the first few matches was
also disappointing but they bounced back with great determination and beaten defending champions Jamaica Tallawahs in the first Eliminator was very encouraging and promising that the team could have emerged victorious but lack of application on their last outing certainly was responsible for them losing out again at the CPL,” Arjune mentioned.
Arjune saw there was a plethora of outstanding performances and felt those could have inspired them to be in the championship contest but said the guys had to be more disciplined in the field.
“In the last game, they dropped two catches off Colin Munro who eventually went on to hit a match-winning, unbeaten innings; it proved bad for the Warriors boy because Munro capitalized on the opportunity to take TKR closer to win the tournament,” Arjune, whose younger brother Vishal Arjune, also represented Guyana at the youth level.