To the strains of David Rudder's 'This is not a fete in here, this is madness', T&T's cricketers brought out the first carnival band at the Queen's Park Oval, Port-of-Spain, yesterday, whipping a hapless Jamaican team by seven wickets in the semifinals of the Nagico Regional Super50 tournament, after they crashed to an embarrassing 49 all out.
T&T in reply, duly completed the victory and earned a place in Saturday's final. They now await their opponent, as Barbados play Guyana in the other semifinal today at the same venue.
Pacer Jerome Taylor caused some anxious moments for the host team but Lendl Simmons with 21 and Darren Bravo 23 not out led the charge and skipper Dwayne Bravo was there at the end to hit the winning run.
Eleven men clad in red ran out unto the lush green Oval outfield and started to make mas with the visitors. It was action from very early and Jamaica, who lost the toss, lost everything after that.
Skipper Bravo in brilliant form started the fete when he touched the edge of opener John Campbell's bat for Denesh Ramdin to throw his hands in the air.
Nkrumah Bonner, who scored a century against Guyana in his last match, was next in and Ravi Rampaul proved too much for him as he fell for one.
Kenar Lewis, playing his first match of the tournament, then gave the locals their third scalp as Bravo snared him.
Tamar Lambert, the man the Jamaicans always look towards when they are in danger, was next in and Bravo sent him back, leg before wicket without scoring as the Jamaicans started to fold like a Patraj duck roti.
With the scoreborad reading four wickets down for five runs, employers would have been pulling their hair out, as fans would have been leaving the office to catch a glimpse before the game was over.
The Jamaicans found runs almost impossible to come by and the first boundary of the innings came after 12 overs.
Rayad Emrit known for bowling down that 'corridor of uncertainty' came on from the Media Centre End and with the ball seaming around was able to finish off the previously unbeaten Jamaicans for 49 runs.
Emrit ended with the magnificent figures off four for 19, while man of the match Bravo captured three for 10. Rampaul claimed two for six and Sunil Narine one for 13.
SCOREBOARD
Jamaica Inns
K Lewis lbw DJ Bravo 2
J Campbell c Ramdin b DJ Bravo 0
N Bonner c Lewis b Rampaul 1
T Lambert lbw DJ Bravo 0
A McCarthy c Lewis b Emrit 16
C Baugh c DM Bravo b Rampaul 4
D Bernard c DM Bravo b Emrit 1
A Russell c Ramdin b Emrit 4
N Miller lbw Narine 3
J Taylor not out 13
A Richardson c Lewis b Emrit 0
Extras: (1lb, 4w) 5
Total all out (24.2) 49
Fall of wkts: 3, 4, 4, 5, 14, 25, 29, 36, 40, 40, 49.
Bowling: D Bravo 6-0-10-3, R Rampaul 5-3-6-2, S Narine 7-3-13-1, R Emrit 6.2-0-19-4.
T&T Inns
L Simmons b Taylor 21
E Lewis c Russell b Taylor 0
I Khan lbw Taylor 1
DM Bravo not out 23
DJ Bravo not out 5
Extras: (w1) 1
Total 3 wkts (13.1ovs) 51
Fall of wkts: 1, 10, 34.
Bowling: J Taylor 6-2-11-3, D Bernard 2-0-10-0, A Richardson 1-0-8-0, N Miller 3.1-1-10-0, A Russell 1-0-12-0.
Result: T&T won by 7 wkts.
Man of the match: Dwayne Bravo.