Shah Alam: Captain Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand remains hopeful of staging a comeback in day two when Team Asia resumes battle with Europe in the foursomes matches at the EurAsia Cup presented by DRB-HICOM on Friday.
Team Asia suffered a 5-0 defeat by Europe who stamped their authority in the opening fourballs format at the Glenmarie Golf and Country Club, Garden course.
Thongchai admitted that Team Europe were in a class of their own but the three-time Asian Tour Order of Merit winner believes his team can still surmount a challenge in the Ryder Cup-style showdown.
“The European team is more experienced than us and they played really well. They made lots of birdies and eagles and their putting was unbelievable,” said Thongchai.
“However, we will work really hard tomorrow. I’ve made some changes to the pairings and have told my team to believe in themselves. Hopefully we can pull this off together,” said Thongchai.
Reigning Order of Merit winner Kiradech Aphibarnrat of Thailand believes all is still not lost and that the team can still rally back with those much-needed points in the foursomes matches.
“We were planning to get the points really fast tomorrow and that will come down to the first three groups. We need to win these matches early to ease the pressure and bring ourselves back into contention,” said Kiradech.
India’s Anirban Lahiri, who was outplayed by Spain’s Gonzalo Fdez-castano and Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher, conceded that it was the lack of Match Play experience that led to their drubbing by Team Europe.
“I think we are still in a state of shock. We’ll be up for a while tonight, thinking what went wrong. We didn’t take our opportunities which basically come when you’re mentally sharp and I think that’s something that comes with experience,” said Lahiri.
However, the three-time Asian Tour winner is looking forward to salvage some measure of continental pride when they go head-to-head with their European rivals on Friday.
“I guess we have our backs to the wall and there’s only one way we can move from here. We have to hope that the Europeans get a little complacent from the start and we play our best over the next two days, especially tomorrow where we try and win at least four of the matches or 3 1/2 points. That will give us a fighting chance on Saturday,” said the Indian.
