BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – Barbados Pride head coach Emmerson Trotman said his side will have to be smart and make quick adjustment to conditions when they reach Trinidad for the semi-finals of the Colonial Medical Insurance Suepr50 Cup next week.

The Pride became the first side to confirm their place in the semi-finals, when they brushed aside Canada by seven wickets in their final Group A game on Saturday at the Conaree Cricket Centre.

Trotman said his side played well throughout the group stage, though he would mark them down for losing two games they could have won.

Trotman spoke to CWI Media following the game and said he and his team are now concentrating on the task in front of them – being successful in their semi-final on Thursday and qualifying for the final on Sunday. . .

On qualifying for the semi-finals:

We are very happy. The players have played well. They have executed well, and they have been consistent. The main reason for their success in the group stage is they have batted consistently well up front and the bowling has been consistent. They played quite positively and that was nice to see, so they deserve it.

On the key performers in the batting:

I can’t go past the opening batsmen. They put on XXX half-century stands and that was fantastic in any tournament at all. They set the tone for us and the other batsmen came out and topped up on that, so we were happy with their performance.

On areas for improvement:

I am not quite happy with the standard of our fielding now. We can do a lot better. We have discussed it and we have a few plans in place to improve that, so I am looking forward to the players topping up on that because any good fielding side wins tournaments. We have two ‘finals’ to play and I expect the players to field a lot better.

On the pitches in St. Kitts:

The conditions have been beautiful. There has been nice weather. The pitches have been magnificent. It has been hard work for the bowlers, but it has been better for the batsmen. The bowlers have done very, very well on these flat pitches and I compliment them a lot.

On how to adjust to conditions in Trinidad:

We have got to be smart. The batsmen will have to get in there and be patient in the beginning. They still have to be positive, but there have to be an element of patience, they have to be smart and they must have the awareness. They will have to adapt quickly. We are going to Trinidad for two ‘finals’, so there is no time sit back and relax. We are ready. We are prepared. Hopefully, we can get in some practice and work on a few areas, so I am looking forward to it.

On the bowling:

We have been fortunate that we have quite a few allrounders in the squad. We had to manage the pacers well and make sure they had the maximum amount of rest and rotation. We had to be smart. It worked out quite well for us. We had to know how to rotate players such as Miguel Cummins and Chemar Holder. It was not a question of dropping them – but resting them. The players were quite happy. They were few complaints and they really enjoyed this tournament.

On how he would grade his team in the group stage:

I would grade my team at eight out of 10. We lost a couple of games that we should not have lost. We have got to understand that when we have a team under pressure, we have to dominate and complete the job. We threw away a couple of games away, so my grade would be eight out of 10 because they could have done a lot better still.

Source: CWI Media