T&T thrash Cobras to book a place in the final of CLT20

By Rahul Bajaj
for Cricketain.com

Published: October 23, 2009

commentComment     Email This Post Email This Post     Printable version

Hyderabad: The only unbeaten team in the Champions League continued to impress with another outstanding performance as they knocked the Cape Cobras out of the tournament and secured a place for themselves in the final of the cash-rich twenty20 league.

The first semi-final had turned out to be a damp squib but the second one was no way near to being a one-sided affair. Trinidad and Tobago and Cape Cobras were neck to neck for a major part of the game until Dwayne Bravo exploded with a brilliant 34-ball 58 while adding 93 runs for the fourth wicket, with skipper Darren Ganga to help T&T keep their undefeated record in the tournament intact going into the finals.

Cape Cobras skipper Andrew Puttick won a crucial toss and opted to bat first. Herschelle Gibbs struck form for the Cobras just when it mattered as he smashed his way to a 27-ball 42 providing the much needed momentum to the Cobras innings in the first half. His knock included five fours and one hit over the boundary ropes.

Spinner Sherwin Ganga, drew the first blood when rival skipper Andrew Puttick (10) went for a pull, missed the line and found his timber being rattled. Davids came to the pitch and smacked a boundary on the third ball he faced from Sherwin. The fireworks began as Gibbs went after Bravo, the highest wicket taker of the tournament, creaming him for 18 runs by hitting four elegant on-side boundaries in the sixth over of the innings.

Ganga brought in Dave Mohammed and the left-arm spinner obliged with the wicket of Davids (7), done in by a splendid catch by the bowler off his own bowling. Duminy was the next man in and he continued with his fine form, hitting Mohammed for a four and a six, maintaining the good run-rate.

Gibbs survived a stumping chance off Kieron Pollard on the last ball of the eight over but Pollard got his man soon after as he bowled him on the first ball of his next over. Rory Kleinveldt (21) came to the pitch and straight away made an impact by hitting Navin Stewart and Pollard for huge sixes but departed soon while attempting another big shot off Simmons.

After completing his fifty, Duminy (61 not out) opened up and smashed Bravo for a four and a six, pushing the accelerator button. The 40-ball knock of the left hander included four fours and three sixes. Philander (13 not out) also chipped in with a big hit over the mid-wicket boundary.

Interestingly, Cobras could manage just two runs of the last over bowled by Ravi Rampaul. Rampaul bowled full and straight and didn’t let the batsmen get anything away and the last over made a huge difference in the end as the Cobras probably were short by 10-15 runs when they walked out to defend. For T&T, Simmons was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 2 for 17 off his 3 overs.

The T&T approach to batting has been sheer entertainment during the Champions League and they did not let the pressure of chasing 175 in a semi-final cramp their style. The Caribbean side made a blazing start to their chase as William Perkins (20) and Adrian Barath (29) added 53 in the first five overs. The returning Charl Langeveldt bowled two cheap overs and it was Monde Zondeki who had a firsthand experience of the Caribbean fury.

Barath creamed Zondeki for two fours and a six in his first over, and Perkins smashed him for three boundaries in his second over as the poor paceman ended up giving away 30 runs out of 38 on the board. Rory Kleinvedlt was welcomed with a four by Perkins and Barath got into action with a four and six before a terrible mix up between the duo resulted in run out of Perkins.

Duminy was called in to roll his arm over and he struck with his second ball, trapping Barath in front of the wickets and the two openers were back in the pavilion in quick succession. Lendl Simmons (20) hit Claude Henderson for a massive six over long-off and got two lives when he was dropped by Henry Davids once off Henderson and few balls later off Duminy. Justin Ontong finally got rid of Simmons on the first ball of his spell when he had him caught by Kleinveldt at mid-wicket.

The match was evenly balanced as the Caribbean side had lost three wickets at the half-way mark but Bravo and Ganga batted fearlessly and took the match away from the South Africans, who were let down by some poor fielding. Bravo’s knock of 58 not out was laced with four fours and three sixes while Daren Ganga’s unbeaten knock of 44 was studded with one four and two sixes. The duo shared 93 runs for the fourth wicket off just 55 balls to take their home with 4 balls to spare.

Trinidad and Tobago will now face off against the New South Wales Blues in the final at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Hyderabad.

Brief Scores:

Trinidad & Tobago 178 for 3 (Bravo 58*, Ganga 44*, Ontong 1-14) beat Cape Cobras 175 for 5 (Duminy 61*, Gibbs 42, Simmons 2-17) by seven wickets

Man of the Match: Dwayne Bravo

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


WPSN comments




Related News Headlines

Cricketain Latest