Janeiro Tucker might have been the lone star in Bermuda’s six-wicket defeat by Zimbabwe yesterday but he conceded after the match he should have done even better.The Southampton Rangers skipper stroked an invaluable 53, and with OJ Pitcher (16) put on 57 for the fifth wicket, having arrived at the crease with his side wobbling at 18 for three.

But, having looking relatively untroubled against the Zimbabwe attack, he surrendered his wicket by holing out to Terrence Duffin off paceman Christopher Mpofu — aware that had he been able to hang on for the final eight overs, Bermuda’s total might have climbed well above the 150 mark and given his bowlers a total to defend.

“Overall I was pleased with my innings but I’m a team player and, as the skipper said, I had a responsibility out there to go on,” Tucker told a press conference afterwards.

“There were still eight overs left and I just gave my wicket away. I should have just waited for the right ball, I was set. I should have carried on and taken us to a higher total.

“In the end, we didn’t come through with the total we really wanted and I feel partly responsible for that.”

However, on the plus side he was pleased to feel no ill effects from the groin injury that kept him out of Monday’s match against England and last week’s game in Antigua against Canada.

“The groin feels very good,” he said.

“I gave it six days rest, I wanted a good stay at the wicket today to see what it felt like. And I came through with flying colours, better than what I expected.

“That innings gives me a lot of confidence. Once I got to the stage where I was middling the ball, finding the gaps, scoring boundaries, I felt good. Now I have to take it to the next level.”

Skipper Irving Romaine, while delighted with Tucker’s return to form, said he too was disappointed the middle order bat hadn’t fully capitalised on his half-century.

“Janeiro batted well, but with the other teams there’s always a player who gets 50 and then goes on to make 70 and 80 or 100,” said Romaine.

“And today Janeiro could have made another 20 or 30 runs by himself. He knows he could have batted the overs out.”

However, the early order bats, including Romaine himself, had to shoulder most of the blame.

“Once again it came down to our batting,” lamented the captain.

“We didn’t score enough runs at this level. But you can’t take anything away from (Anthony) Ireland. He bowled really well and we never really recovered.

“It was always a struggle. Lionel Cann came out and pretty much gave away his wicket when he could have batted on. We still had something like 15 overs left at this stage and if he could have batted on we might have been able to get up to 190, a total that would have put some pressure on them.

“We were 50 runs short of doing that.”

Running between wickets, he admitted, wasn’t as good as it should have been.

“We’re definitely not picking up the singles we should, especially against spin. We should be playing a straight bat through the ‘V’ and taking the singles, you just have to push it along.”

And he said the team’s poor batting form was now a big concern.

“Obviously we’re a bit down with our batting. It used to be that we could rely on our batting to get a decent total and then our bowling was always wayward. Now we’re struggling for runs. We have to come together and know that we have to put up a respectable total to have any chance.

“Our concern is the batting order. We haven’t had the same order for a long time now.

“We really have to find an order that works. We have to make a decision on who will be the top five and stick with it because we need to find something that works.

“Today we tried (David) Hemp at three. It didn’t work. We have to sit down and see what he’s comfortable with. Does he feel comfortable at three or does he want to continue to bat lower down. We have to talk to him.

“But we have to get the order right.”

Of opener Clay Smith who made only seven yesterday and has been finding runs hard to come by in recent months, Romaine agreed the knee injury on which he underwent surgery last year might still be playing on his mind.

“Everybody knows that Clay was one of the best bats coming out Bermuda and you hear people talking about why he’s not at his best now and talking about his injuries.

“I think it’s at the back of his mind that he always gets injured right before the big games, and I don’t know whether he’s puttng his all into it because it happened in the first game in Ireland (ICC Trophy) and the first game in Kenya. He got injured and was left out.

“I think he’s thinking he could get injured again but we’re here now and we have to let it all out.”