Combating the dot dilemma

To develop the following, let us first identify the head coaches of the four Stanford 20/20 semi final teams.

Defending champion Guyana has Albert Smith as their lead tactician while Jamaica has Junior Bennett. Neither has played international cricket but Smith coached Guyana to the championship in 2006 while Bennett is highly regarded in his native Jamaica after his impressive work with their youth cricketers.

Losing finalist in 2006 Trinidad and Tobago has former West Indies wicketkeeper David Williams at the helm while Barbados has former West Indies all rounder Vasbert Drakes in command. These four men in collaboration with their respective captains will study their teams and the opposition and develop strategies to conquer each other in order to win a place in the Stanford 20/20 final on February 24th.

One critical element of 20/20 strategising is that dot balls are worth as much as gold to the bowling team and cannot be afforded by the batting team.

With only 120 balls to face in an innings every team is eager to capitalize on any scoring opportunities however some are more adept at executing than others. Barbados, for example, in their previous game found runs hard to come by, unable to score off 50 deliveries against Grenada. Fifty deliveries amount to an astounding 8.2 overs. Those sorts of statistics cannot be afforded in the semi final especially against the well drilled and busy body Trinidad and Tobago.

Drakes has work to do in getting his batsman to force themselves in scoring off many more deliveries. At the moment the equation will offer him no comfort and add to that that Samuel Badree, the Trini leg spinner has not been going for much throughout his Stanford 20/20 campaign.

That Barbados failed to score off 51 deliveries in their first game against Dominica when they found themselves in more than a spot of bother will give Drakes and his captain, Dwayne Smith, even more to worry about.

On the other hand David Williams would be pleased that in their quarter final game against St Vincent and the Grenadines, his Trinidad and Tobago team only missed out scoring off 32 deliveries. It is a figure he will want to further reduce but his Daren Ganga led team is about at par for the course.

Their batsmen are not only quite adept at innovative strokeplay at the top of the order but they are also capable and eager to ensure that every delivery is worth some amount of runs. Their intent to score off every delivery is clear and unmistakable. After they were reduced to 49 for 3 by the 9th over, Dwayne Bravo (62 from 32 balls) and William Perkins (56 from 44 balls) ensured the innings was rebuilt to eventually reach 166 for 7 from 20 overs.

Sulieman Benn, the Barbados left arm spinner will pose a serious challenge to the Trini batsmen, especially coming off his outrageous bowling figures against Grenada of 4 overs, 1 maiden, 4 runs and 2 wickets. Nevertheless the impressive Trinidad and Tobago will have to be favourites to edge past Barbados and slip into the final.

Jamaica has a problem similar to Barbados but which has different roots. In their quarter final match against Nevis they faced a total of 106 deliveries but did not score from 48 of those. That amounts to eight overs of non-scoring. While Barbados found themselves contained and unable to turn over the strike, Jamaica is loaded with batsman who are very capable of free scoring.

Their predicament is that their batsman, perhaps infected with over-confidence, are playing what some have described as rock star cricket. They deliberately neglect attempting to score singles or twos off some deliveries because they try to beat the cover off the other deliveries in the hunt for fours and sixes. Junior Bennett will doubtlessly spend the next few days trying to refocus the intent of his batsmen and with the likes of captain Chris Gayle in his ranks he should not have too difficult a task. One Gayle assault, singles, twos or not, can bury Guyana in little time.

However deliberate ignoring of singles and twos is a strategy which can cost Jamaica dearly against the dogged Guyana who beat them in the 2006 quarter finals. Revenge will be on Jamaica's mind but in addition to the inevitable boundary hitting they will need to ensure that the Guyanese attack, inclusive of the ever green but immensely experienced spin duo of Mahendra Nagamootoo and Neil McGarrell, goes for runs aplenty by accumulating many singles and twos, especially if they bat first.

Albert Smith's Guyana is known to prefer chasing and they have shown that anything under 200 is well within their reach but Jamaica has a bowling attack, inclusive of five bowlers who have all played Test cricket (Daren Powell, Jerome Taylor, Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and David Bernard Jr). The approach of the defending champions, ably led by master stroke player Ramnaresh Sarwan, is similar to that of the Trinis. They are quite capable of turning it on when they need to but spend their time meticulously and deliberately nudging away for singles and twos as their bolster their score. So much so that against the Antigua and Barbuda pro Team they did not score off a mere 35 deliveries.

The dot dilemma is being overcome by Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago while Barbados seems to have a problem they will need to quickly remedy. Jamaica does not inherently find it difficult to score but opt to hunt boundaries instead. The Guyana v Jamaica contest on February 23rd is an intriguing one but Guyana will need something super special, similar to Esuan Crandon's 39 ball 71 in 2006, to overcome the mighty Jamaicans.

It will be fairly safe to assume that the teams which face fewer dot balls will prevail and meet each other in the final.

* Republished from Stanford2020.com Web site.