West Indies Under-19 cricket coach Floyd Reifer isn’t reading too much into the two warm-up defeats ahead of his team’s inaugural match of the ICC Under-19 World Cup against Australia in Georgetown, Guyana, later on Friday (January 14), saying it’s just a matter of time before the ‘talented bunch’ starts ticking the right boxes. Hosts West Indies lost by big margins to India and South Africa in the build-up and would be hoping to put their indifferent form in the warm-ups behind them when they begin their Group D engagements against Australia at the Providence Stadium.
In both the warm-up games, Reifer’s side failed to cross the 200-barrier but the coach said he wouldn’t put much emphasis on the losses. “I would say the warm-up games that we have played were two low-scoring games, so I wouldn`t want to put too much emphasis on that. I think the batting comes down to the mindset of the players in terms of spending some more time at the crease and building some more partnerships.
“Yes, we know as a batting unit there are certain things we want to accomplish, guys building on starts and these are things we are discussing. I’m confident in the lads, we have a talented bunch of cricketers, we have some good batters here, it’s just a matter for us now to just do the one percenters right and then we will respond with some consistency,” said Reifer, who was appointed head coach of the Under-19 team exactly a year ago.
Australia also have plenty of questions to answer after a nine-wicket defeat to India in their only warm-up encounter. But with two teams progressing from Group D, which also includes Scotland and Sri Lanka, their captain Cooper Connolly is confident about his side’s chances.
Venue: Providence Stadium, Guyana
Date & Time: January 14th, at 7:30 PM IST
Live Streaming: Star Sports Network and Disney+Hotstar
Wicket-keeper- Tobias Snell
Batters- Cooper Connolly (c), Ackeem Auguste (vc), Giovonte Depeiza, Campbell Kellaway
All-Rounders- Nivethan Radhakrishnan, Matthew Nandu, Johann Layne
Bowlers- McKenny Clarke, Jack Nisbet, Jaden Carmichael
West Indies: Shaqkere Parris, Matthew Nandu, Teddy Bishop, Ackeem Auguste (c), Giovonte Depeiza, Rivaldo Clarke / Carlon Bowen-Tuckett (wk), Jaden Carmichael, Anderson Mahase, Johann Layne, Isai Thorne, McKenny Clarke
Australia: Teague Wyllie, Corey Miller, Cooper Connolly (c & wk), Campbell Kellaway, Aidan Cahill, Tobias Snell, William Salzmann, Tom Whitney, Joshua Garner, Jack Nisbet, Nivethan Radhakrishnan
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