Happy to be in the final but not content yet: Ganga

By Rahul Bajaj
for Cricketain.com

Published: October 23, 2009

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Hyderabad: Trinidad and Tobago have been by far the most dominating team of the Champions League. They have impressed one and all by their exciting approach towards the game and brought back memories of the yesteryear Caribbean flair. But even though they haven’t lost a single game in the tournament, skipper Darren Ganga says they are far from being content.

The Caribbean side trounced Cape Cobras by seven wickets in the second semi-final to set up Friday’s final against NSW Blues of Australia. Ganga played a crucial role with an unbeaten 44 and together with Dwayne Bravo (54 not out) put on an unbeaten 93-run stand to lead the side to yet another impressive win.

“I am quite happy to be in the final. But we are not content with just this (semifinal) win. Tonight is going to be pretty chilled though. We have set ourselves goals. We have five wins and it’s the final tomorrow, we get that sixth win they (teammates) can celebrate,” Ganga said after the match.

The Caribbean team had lost three top-order batsmen at the half-way mark while chasing a huge 176-run target but Ganga said they could afford a fearless approach only because of a strong batting order. “We had confidence that we have guys to win it. There were Kieron Pollard, Navin Stewart and Denesh Ramdin to come so that gave the freedom to bat freely,” he said.

Man-of-the-Match in the semi-final for his brilliant 54, Dwayne Bravo was happy to strike form just at the right time.

“I had contributed with the ball and I believed in my batting abilities. This was the right time to take off. I had not scored runs so it was a bit difficult to get the momentum but we could take on the attack because we had guys like Pollard (down the order),” Bravo, who has taken 10 wickets in the tournament so far, said.

Losing skipper Andrew Puttick said that poor fielding made it easy for Trinidad and Tobago. “The game could have been closer had we taken our chances. It’s disappointing to go out in this fashion. I think they handled the pressure better than us. It was a good wicket and I was happy with the score. We should have made it difficult for them,” Puttick, said.

Despite having beaten NSW Blues earlier in the League stage, Ganga was not ready to take their opponents light in the final.

“I know one thing for sure that NSW won’t be happy at all with our victory in the League round. We are bracing ourselves for a backlash. We know it’s a final. We know they are a quality team. They have quality players. We are not going to underestimate them at all. What ever happened in the league round is history. Tomorrow is about re-grouping. Hopefully we can bring lot of smiles to lot of faces,” Ganga said.

Ganga was also keen that his bowlers perform better in the power-play.

“We are never satisfied with the manner in which we played. Last game we played was a near perfect game but still we have areas of concerns like we need to bowl better in the first six overs,” he said.

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