Bermuda’s batsmen were ‘star-struck’ national coach Gus Logie said yesterday when asked to explain the team’s disappointing display against England — where they were dismissed for a mere 45 inside 23 overs.

With the players enjoying a full rest day yesterday, when they sat in the stands for the match between Australia and Zimbabwe, Logie said he was backing them to put in a much stronger performance tomorrow in their final warm-up game against the Zimbabweans.

“They have to believe in themselves against the bowlers they face, and hopefully we’ll be less star-struck than we were against England,” said the coach.

“I think our confidence level will be a little higher against Zimbabwe, not having the star power out there.

“On Monday we played names rather than balls. I keep saying, you play the ball not the person who’s bowling it. Reputation can play a big part in reducing confidence and yesterday (Monday) we saw that.

“Zimbabwe don’t have the same reputation as English players, so we just have to play the game as we know we can and I’m backing them to do much better.”

They were, however, some positives which could be taken from Monday’s 241-run defeat, he said.

“I think the guys were quite competent out there in the field,” said Logie.

“I think the bowling, the fielding and certainly the catching was excellent. It was a competent effort. “If we can improve, maybe it’s getting to balls quicker on the boundaries but if they continue fielding in that vein I’ll be quite pleased.

“Unfortunately we couldn’t repeat that kind of performance with the bat.

“Again it came back to individuals’ approach to their innings and their understanding of what needs to be done and I hope they can appreciate that when they get out in the middle that time spent in the middle is valuable, we don’t need to rush anything.

“I think too many times we play ill-advised shots, a little bit more patience is needed and an understanding of the situation.”

Meanwhile, after resting both all-rounder Janeiro Tucker and pace bowler Stefan Kelly against England as they continued to recover from injuries picked up on the recent tour of Antigua, Bermuda are expected to be back to full strength for the Zimbabwe clash.

The biggest question mark appears to hang over skipper Irving Romaine — who must rely on clearance from doctors to play after suffering concussion while fielding on Monday.

Romaine took a spectacular catch to dismiss early order bat Ian Bell, but in the process thundered into the rock-hard surface which left him with blurred vision. A final assessment of his condition will be made today but both the player himself and coach Gus Logie are confident he’ll be given the all-clear.

“If I have my way I’m definitely playing, I feel fine,” said Romaine yesterday.

“I just need doctors to give me the OK.”

Logie added: “It (the injury) was a bit unfortunate, it was a brilliant catch but he got concussed in the process and the medical reports suggest that he should be OK, possibly within 24 hours, so we’re looking forward to him being fully fit for Zimbabwe.”

As for Tucker and Kelly, Logie said: “It was precautionary (leaving them out of the England match). In the end we didn’t think it was worth risking them.

“But I think against Zimbabwe we’ll certainly play them. Kelly came out of the net session pretty good, and we’re looking forward to him and Janeiro playing a part against Zimbabwe on Thursday.”

Batsmen ‘star-struck’