Pollard says Tridents will use small break to regroup
?BASSETERRE, St Kitts (CMC) — Captain Kieron Pollard says Barbados Tridents must regroup and seek to improve their form, following their second defeat in three outings in the Caribbean Premier League here on Monday.
The reigning champions struggled to 135 for eight at Warner Park and then watched as St Kitts and Nevis Patriots motored to their target to complete a comprehensive eight-wicket win with 17 balls to spare.
“We’ve lost two of our batsmen (Shoaib Malik and Jeevan Mendis). They went off to international cricket so there’s not much we can do but what we can do is try to analyse and see where we went wrong and try to come better and see if we can do better next time,” Pollard told the media here.
“Our next game is in Jamaica, we have a few days off so there’s a bit of time to think about things.”
Tridents started the tournament strongly, winning three of their first four games before their home crowd at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown.
They beat last year’s losing finalists Guyana Amazon Warriors by 49 runs, brushed aside 2013 champions Jamaica Tallawahs by 16 runs before easily trouncing Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel by eight wickets.
Their only defeat came at the hands of then bottom-of-the-table St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, in a one-run verdict off the last ball.
Since then, however, Tridents beat St Lucia Zouks by 15 runs but then lost to them by 30 runs, and their latest defeat against the Patriots have raised doubt about their form.
Pollard remained upbeat that his side would rebound.
“It is Twenty20 cricket at the end of the day and someone has to win and someone has to lose,” Pollard said.
“When you lose it is about how you lose and about improving. For me, I will always stress on improving as a team and improving collectively and at the end of the day, each and every one of us has to take a look at ourselves in order to come to the party and do what is required for the team.
“We can’t just sit back and say we will beat everybody, that’s not going to happen. Teams are coming, teams are balanced, teams want to win and as the last couple of games have just shown, the teams that were playing against us were more hungry than us.”
Tridents face Tallawahs in their next game on Saturday at Sabina Park.