Guyana will be looking for an improved performance today when they come up against the UWI team at ARG in their second match of the 2003 Red Stripe Bowl regional one-day cricket competition.

Coach Albert Smith told Stabroek Sports yesterday after his team’s morning net session that he was disappointed with Guyana’s showing against the West Indies under-19 team on Wednesday despite his side’s 14-run victory.

“The openers gave us a good start and the skipper (Shivnarine Chanderpaul) and (Narsingh) Deonarine batted magnificently in their 80-run, fifth-wicket stand. However, the middle order let me down and I think we should have gotten far more than 250 against a team like the West Indies youth side,” Smith opined.

The coach was critical of his team’s fielding and bowling and said he was surprised at some strange field settings at times, especially when off-spinner Lennox Cush was bowling.

“It was certainly not one of our better days and we are lucky that apart from (Lendl) Simmons, who batted brilliantly for his hundred and to a lesser extent Assad (Fudadin) none of the other batsmen seemed capable of taking advantage of our loose bowling and ordinary fielding.

“We had a serious talk yesterday afternoon and we know we need to pull our socks up as we prepare to face UWI tomorrow (today) and Barbados and Antigua in our last two games.

“I was a bit concerned that the fast bowlers were not used more and that Sarwan, who gave away 56 runs from his 10 overs, was kept on for his entire spell. The captain and his men know that they fell short in many areas on the field Wednesday and our senior bowler Mahendra Nagamootoo knows he has to be a lot tighter if we want to re-capture the title this year,” Smith disclosed.

Guyana slipped from 79 without loss to 134-4 before Chanderpaul and Deonarine revived the position and Smith suggested that test player Sarwan who looked a shadow of himself in his innings of nine, needs to focus a bit more on his batting.

“Sarwan had a long ‘net’ yesterday and I am confident that he will get a big score before the competition is over. Team spirit is very high and we can’t be too hard on Chanderpaul’s tactics on the field since this was only his first match as Guyana one-day captain and he should learn as he goes along,” Smith pointed out.

The Guyana camp is worried that in-form batsman Deonarine might miss today’s game because of the influenza virus which will be a big blow to the middle order.

“Deonarine was feeling weak since the first game and was taken to the hospital today (yesterday). He is still weak and if he is unable to play then Travis Dowlin should come in for him in what should be the only change from the team which won on Wednesday,” Smith said.

Today the Philo Wallace led University X1 side could be competitive if the powerful Wallace gets going and gets support from the experienced Stanton Proverbs, Jason Haynes, Jason Parris wicket -keeper Keith Hibbert and Shawn Graham.

The UWI side, which includes 10 Barbadians, three Jamaicans and Danny Balgobin from Trinidad could cause some problems for the Guyana batsmen on what could be a track with lots of bounce and pace.

Ryan Nurse, a member of the championship-winning 2002 Barbadian team, bowled with pace against Barbados on Thursday and is expected to get support with the new ball from Jason Bennett, who took 34 wickets for West Indies ‘B’ in this year’s Carib Beer Cup.

Jamaican left-arm spinner Ryan Cunningham had 2-19 in a tight spell against the aggressive Bajans on Wednesday and along with left-armer Dereck Bishop, will hope to restrict the powerful Guyana batting line up.

Today’s match starts at 9:30am and GBC will bring ball by ball commentary of the game.