T&T takes Caribbean T20 crown

Caribbean fans came out to support T&T on Sunday night and the ‘Red Force’ did not disappoint them.
At 11.05 pm, Kensington Oval was transformed into a mini Carnival as the top regional team proved too strong for the English champion, to claim the Caribbean T20 title and the US 62,000 first prize. Even without their inspirational captain Daren Ganga, who was forced to miss the match because of an injury to his hand, T&T blew past Hampshire, winning the match by 36 runs. In Ganga’s absence, the team was led by Dinesh Ramdin, whose 33 runs off 19 balls in the last quarter of the innings, continued to show his tremendous value to his team. T&T’s final total of 147 may not have been what Ramdin wanted after he won the toss and elected to bat. But once Samuel Badree removed Hampshire’s top batsman Johan Myburgh with his third ball, Ramdin would have felt a major obstacle was gone.

Hampshire never recovered. In the face of some good, steady bowling which was well backed up in the field, none of the Hampshire batsmen showed the resolve to seriously threaten the Caribbean’s top T20 team. Benjamin Howell (28 not out) was the topscorer and while part-time bowler Jason Mohammed (2-6) and Kervon Cooper (2-15) may have ended with the wickets, it would be fair to say that Badree (4-0-15-1), and to a lesser extent Ravi Rampaul (1-25), all had their moments of glory with the ball. But this T&T performance was all about team, not bowlers, batsmen or fieldsmen. T&T had earlier raced to 100 of just 14 overs and seemed well on the way to surpassing their top score of 157 against Barbados in the preliminaries.

However, that they were only able to add 47 from the last six overs was due to some excellent bowling from left arm spinner Danny Briggs (4-0-9-2) and Simon Jones 4-0-20-0. The darling of Kensington Oval, Darren Bravo, charmed the 6,000 fans  with another elegant display of batsmanship but just as he set, he holed out to Sean Irvive at long off to give Briggs his second wicket. He faced just 28 balls and struck five fours and two sixes in his 41 but it set the tone for the T&T innings. Star of the tournament Lendl Simmons, who lost opening partner Adrian Barath (2) to Briggs, with only two runs on the board, again played well, hitting 31 from 32 balls and Ramdin’s cameo towards the end, meant T&T had put together a challenging total. As it turned out, the English champion never seriously threatened and T&T will not only represent the region at the Airtel series later this year, they deservedly won CT20 title.

Scores: T&T 147 for seven (20 overs), Hampshire 111 for eight (20 overs).

SCOREBOARD

T&T vs Hampshire

T&T inns
A Barath c Vince b Briggs    2
L Simmons c Vince b Howell    31
D Bravo c Ervine b Briggs    41
J Mohammed b Wood    15
R Morton c Vince b Riazuddin    11
D Ramdin run out    33
S Ganga c L Dawson b Howell    1
K Cooper not out    4
Extras (b1, lb3, w7)    11
Total for 7 wkts (20ovs)    147
Fall of wkts: 2, 79, 84, 102, 112, 120, 147.   
Bowling: D Briggs 4-0-9-2, S Jones 4-0-20-0, H Riazuddin 4-0-44-1, C Wood 3-0-35-1, J Muburgh 2-0-21-0, B Howell 3-0-14-2.

Hampshire Inns
J Adams run out    16
J Myburgh b Badree    0
J Vince b Mohammed    23
S Ervine c Ganga b Mohammed    16
L Dawson c Barath b Cooper    6
B Howell not out    28
C Wood c Morton b Cooper    2
H Riazuddin b Rampaul    3
S Jones b Ganga    2
M Bates not out    5
Extras lb4, w2, nb4    10
Total for 8 wkts (20overs)     111
Fall of wkts: 0, 38, 42, 59, 66, 75, 92, 99,   
Bowling: R Rampaul 4-1-25-1, S Badree 4-0-15-1, S Narine 3-0-24-0, K Cooper 3.5-0-15-2, J Mohammed 2.1-0-6-2, S Ganga 3-0-22-1.
Result: T&T won by 36 runs to claim Caribbean T20 crown.
Star-of-Match: Darren Bravo.
Star-of-Tournament: Lendl Simmons.
Toss: T&T.