Sarwan believes 'touch-players' have place in Twenty20

Published: Wednesday | June 17, 2009


LONDON (CMC):

Though he acknowledges power hitters like Chris Gayle will relish Twenty20 matches, Ramnaresh Sarwan feels there is still a place for 'touch-players' like him in the shortest form of the game.

Sarwan stroked 19 not out from nine balls and compatriot Chanderpaul gathered 17 not out, as West Indies successfully chased a revised target of 80 from nine overs following a near hour-long stoppage for rain in their Group-E match at The Oval.

Sarwan struck Ryan Sidebottom for the last of his three boundaries over extra cover to formalise the result with four balls to spare and also earned the Man-of-the-Match award.

Manipulating the field

"I think Mahela Jayawardene (on Sunday) showed that if you played basic cricket and pick the gaps, the 'touch-players' can succeed in getting runs," said Sarwan.

"It's only a matter of moving around the crease and manipulating the field as much as you can."

He added: "I am pretty comfortable with Twenty20. Of course, I think it is a very exciting game and it is more for the strong fellows, like Chris (Gayle) and I'll probably have to get in the gym and get big and strong like. I do enjoy playing this form of the game."

Sarwan and Chanderpaul shared an unbroken, sixth-wicket stand of 37, after West Indies chances appeared to have been in the moat, when they crashed to 45 for five in the sixth over.

"I never had a doubt that we could win the match," Sarwan said. "When I was going out to bat, Dwayne (Bravo) told me, 'Continue to believe, Sars, we can still win this game'."

Not hard at all

"We basically needed just one big over to get the equation down to run-a-ball and we got 13 from the seventh over bowled by James Anderson which put us back into the game."

Sarwan continued: "We were calm and I had the support of Shiv at the next end. We are both experienced players and we have been in situations like this before, so it wasn't really too hard."