<Bz45>Logie bewildered by abject display
A bewildered Gus Logie was left shaking his head in frustration as he watched Bermuda barely put up a fight in their opening World One-Day League match against Kenya yesterday.
Apart from the obvious poor shot selection, the national coach admitted he could offer no explanation for the lacklustre performance which came just two days after a 55-run victory over Kenya’s neighbours, Uganda.
“It certainly wasn’t a good day,” said Logie.
“Again you look at the poor shot selection, it’s difficult to explain. One day we score 240 odd runs (against Uganda) and the next day guys can’t seem to put a score together.
“No partnerships . . . very little to talk about . . .
“Dean Minors played well for his 50 but other than that nobody seemed to want to bat. People don’t want to put value on their wickets. It’s unbelievable, but that’s how it is.
“It’s difficult to know where we go from here, really and truly . . . is it belief, is it passion lacking in the players who want to do well. They have to answer some questions of themselves.
“We’ve seen their commitment before but how do we get it consistently. I think that’s the big challenge for us as a team.
“We just have to keep working. This was the first game of the tournament, we’d hoped to start on a better note, we just have to pick up the pieces.”
Logie put blame for defeat squarely on the shoulders of his batsmen, accepting his bowlers never had much of a chance to defend such a low total (133).
“There was nothing really to defend,” he added.
“We had to put the power plays in place, restrictions in the field placings, and we tried with a spinner (Leverock) to start with, hoping to get something out of that but it didn’t work out.
“It was always going to be a difficult score to defend. At the end of the day we just have to bat better, if we can put runs on the board, chances are we can defend it.”
Even after Clay Smith’s dismissal on the third ball of the innings, Logie said there was no excuse for the capitulation that followed.
“We have enough batting in the team. You expect occasionally to lose an early wicket, these things happen but the players that follow have to dig deeper within themselves.
“We have several good batsmen in the team and if they all pitch in the chances are you will put up a score which you can defend.
“But certainly today it just didn’t happen.”