Scorpions coach laments batting woes against Jaguars

Jamaica Scorpions head coach Andre Coley says his team cannot keep chasing games if his side expects to finish in a favourable position in the 2020 edition of the West Indies four-day championship.

The Scorpions, who entered the sixth round in third position, were handed their second loss of the competition on Saturday when they went down by seven wickets to the Guyana Jaguars, thanks to a 15-wicket match haul from left-arm spinner VeerasammyPermaul.

The Jamaicans, who are expected to fall back down the table, were dismissed for a miserly 111 runs after being 75 for one in their second innings. The host managed to get no batting points from the contest and with this in mind, Coley believes the team needs to adjust more quickly to game situations with four rounds of matches remaining.

“We can’t keep chasing games in this tournament and first innings is where you can control the game. We have not shown that grit and determination in the first innings in all but one game and we have to be more consistent as a batting unit,” said Coley.

Apply themselves

Coley continues to stress that the batters need to apply themselves better as conditions change and one of the ways he has highlighted to achieve that is by spending more time at the crease.

“Our batters need to take more time to get themselves in and spend more time at the wicket. I thought we should have been more enterprising against Permaul in the first innings, but we showed him too much respect in the second innings when the wicket got more and more sticky and tacky,” Coley said.

The Jamaica Scorpions will now turn their attention to the seventh-round clash away to the Windward Islands Volcanoes at the Grenada National Stadium starting on Thursday.