Manders: Bermuda bowlers must improve to win USA rematch

Arnold Manders has told his bowlers they need to find consistency if Bermuda are win the ICC Americas Division 1 Twenty20 championship.

With a break in their schedule yesterday, the squad took the opportunity to rest limbs and lick their wounds after Wednesday’s double-header ended in a three-wicket defeat to USA.

It’s far from all doom and gloom in the Bermuda camp, though, after three wins from four games and a number of standout performances left them second in the table ahead of today’s defining back-back matches against Cayman Islands and USA.

Arguably, Bermuda’s top performer has been Janeiro Tucker, who at the halfway stage of the double round robin Twenty20 World Cup qualifier was the tournament’s leading run scorer with 177.

 But defeat to USA handed the team its first setback and Manders pinpointed some sloppy overs with the ball as their downfall.

He warned that maintaining line and length will determine whether the team secures its qualification to the next qualifying stage in Dubai in October.

Manders told the Bermuda Sun: “I think we fielded exceptionally well but some of the bowling was off line and length maybe for two or three overs.

“We need to be more consistent not just for this tournament but for the ICC Division 3 tournament coming up. If we want to beat USA today we are going to have to bowl better.”

Bermuda opened the bowling with two spinners, a policy Manders admitted “didn’t really work”, putting extra reliance on in-form paceman Malachi Jones when he was thrown the ball.

The coach admitted the team are a strike bowler  short but insisted his team were still more than capable of beating USA.

“We have a plan [for the bowlers today],” said Manders. “We need to concentrate on Cayman first and make sure we get a ‘W’ in the win column and then we can focus on USA.”

Manders’ strategy was laid out at the team meeting last night — and it’s clear which area he focused on.

He said: “It all comes down to today. Our fielding’s come on and I’m happy with the batting because it’s so deep.

“Some players haven’t even been to the wicket yet but the bowlers have to be more consistent.

“Really the only reason it was tight against the USA was because the fielding backed the bowlers up so well. We can’t look past Cayman, though. We have to take one game at a time.”

He added: “I think we struggled going straight into the game after the previous one on Wednesday. USA came straight out of their hotel while we had just finished playing Cayman. But I can’t complain.

“The players are a little disappointed. We were about 20 runs short of what we needed.

“We wanted to get 150 but we still got ourselves into the match.”