Batting woes derail both the Patriots and Tridents

CARIBBEAN CRICKET COLUMN - SANTOKIE NAGULENDRAN: Failure of experienced batsmen to adapt to the conditions of Trinidadian pitches ultimately caused the downfall of two franchises

Defending CPL champions Barbados Tridents had recovered well. After a remarkable Kieron Pollard innings had shocked them the day before, they had bounced back and produced a disciplined bowling performance to restrict the St Lucia Zouks to 92 all out. The campaign was seemingly back on track.

Yet what followed was scarcely believable as an efficient, rather than outstanding, Zouks bowling attack restricted the Tridents to 89 for 7 after 20 overs and defended the lowest total in CPL history.

As if to prove this wasn’t a freak capitulation, the Tridents then followed it up with 92 all out in their next game against Guyana, having been 27 for 8 at one stage, and topped it off by finishing 89 for 9 against Guyana in the return match two days later, an embarrassment which sealed their surprise elimination in the group stages.

Last year their championship-winning game plan had been built around their bowlers restricting teams and the batsman doing just enough. This year half of that game plan worked, as the likes of Raymon Reifer, Hayden Walsh Jr, Mitchell Santner and Rashid Khan did enough with the ball, yet had little support from their batsmen.

Mirroring the West Indies selection policy under Jason Holder this summer, the Tridents persisted with Shai Hope in the side, eventually playing him in eight of their ten games, his consistent inability to score, while soaking up balls, meant immediate pressure was heaped on the side, particularly on his opening partner Johnson Charles.

A team littered with bowling allrounders meant they struggled to find a batsman who could add impetus to the innings.

Of course, replacing Alex Hales and Marcus Stoinis before the tournament began with Corey Anderson and Shamarh Brooks could never be seen as an equal trade off, but nearly all the franchises had to deal with major withdrawals, it was Barbados’s lack of depth in batting reserves, to minimise the effect of losing players, which hurt them.

^{Reigning champions Barbados endured a horror tournament}

Rashid Khan generally came in at No.7 or lower in the order: he was experimented with once up the order to pinch-hit at No.3 and fell for a golden duck while trying to hit a six.

However, with a strike rate of 128 for Afghanistan in T20Is, it felt like a missed opportunity not to have played him up the order more regularly to add some sort of spark.

Cautious tactics from the Tridents meant that ultimately he was only used this high up in the order once, despite the low risk nature of the move, and the side continued to flounder due to this inflexibility.

Kyle Mayers and Johnson Charles, who was their top scorer last season, were rare positives from the campaign, both putting up some big scores amid the carnage around them.

Jason Holder tried his best to assist with the bat, but you felt the fatigue of a hectic summer had caught up with him, his quick-fire 69 runs in the last group game, under no pressure, felt like a therapeutic release from the trials of being a captain in various bubbles since early June.

For the Patriots, who only won one game this season, problems began in the build up to the campaign with Fabian Allen missing his connecting flight on route to Trinidad, ruling him out of the tournament.

A player who can bat, bowl and field, there was never any realistic chance of the Patriots ever truly replacing him and they have struggled without his dynamic all-round capabilities.

Beyond Allen’s absence, the faults in the top order batting were their undoing. Opener Evin Lewis told the Caribbean Cricket Podcast this past week that "the team is probably a little on edge right now, everyone knows they’re not playing to the best of their ability, this year my role is to bat through the innings…to be honest it’s put me under a bit of pressure".

As if to emphasis this pressure, the only game the Patriots did win was when Lewis scored 89, against Barbados no less.

The potentially destructive opening partnership with Chris Lynn never coming to fruition. A key factor has been that both have struggled against spin, Lewis being dismissed eight times by spin this campaign, and Lynn averaging a paltry 12 when faced with it.

^{St Kitts and Nevis Patriots won just once}

To their credit, the team did make changes to try and rectify the batting issues. West Indies international Kieran Powell was tried, Jahmar Hamilton was tried, even overseas signing Nick Kelly, the New Zealander plucked from obscurity, was tried, and remains in obscurity after playing four games where he continually struggled with the bat.

There was no solution for the franchise, nobody stood up and made an impact when given a chance in the side.

Joshua Da Silva showed some promise, the emerging player recovering from being dropped in the second game to string together a fluent 59 against Guyana, and will no doubt make a bigger impact in years to come.

While Denesh Ramdin, despite being in the twilight of his career, provided an anchor role in the middle order, but when players were needed to bat around him, he found himself stranded too often.

Captain Rayad Emrit, leading wicket-taker and star player for the team, would have been disappointed with the lack of impact established players such as Sheldon Cottrell, Ish Sodhi and Sohail Tanvir had with the ball.

Yet, veteran local replacements Imran Khan and Jon-Russ Jaggesar used their vast knowledge of the Trinidadian pitches to ensure that bowling was not a major concern for the franchise when compared to their batting tribulations.

As if to capture the tragic plight of the side as the tournament went on, one of the few highlights they did have occurred off the field, as overseas signing Ben Dunk went viral with a clip showing the Australian comically running through a severely drenched outfield, floppy hat and retro moustache in tow, much to the amusement of social media.

As predicted by most pundits, this tournament has been one dominated by bowling and as we’ve seen spin gradually become more effective on the wearing Trinidadian pitches, teams that have managed to progress to the semi-finals have done so by having an effective bowling line-up complimented with competent batting.

For the Tridents and Patriots, this competency has been something which has eluded them throughout the campaign, and both sides will have a lot to reflect on as they make early exits from the tournament.

The Cricketer's coverage of the CPL comes in collaboration with the Caribbean Cricket Podcast