Red Steel captain Dwayne Bravo said everything went to plan in his team's seven-wicket opening victory in the Limacol Caribbean Premier League CPLT20 tournament in Grenada yesterday.Barbados Tridents batting first scored 124 for six in their 20 overs and Red Steel responded with 125 for three–to take the seven-wicket win.Bravo said, "From the night before we sat down and spoke about a plan. We spoke about sending in the opposition if we win the toss and I must say everything went according to plan."One of the top four batsmen was required to bat through the innings and we even got that."
Man of the match Ross Taylor batted for most of the overs, getting 62, while Darren Bravo did likewise and finished on 54 not out."When the game started off the Tridents looked as if they were going to get about 160 runs but the bowlers came back well. I must commend my bowlers for the job they did in coming back strongly. They bowled nicely in the middle overs and this set it up for us."I keep telling my players that these matches are really won in the middle overs, not the first six or the last five. They all understood their roles and performed it very well. This win was a total team effort and we are hoping for even better performances as the tournament goes along.
"Every team is a dangerous one and although we won this first match, we can go on and lose the rest of matches, if we don't keep working hard and delivering."Red Steel mentor Gordon Greenidge said he has been doing a lot of work with the team and he was very happy to see signs of it coming out in the opening win."My role with this team is a mental one and I have been trying to get the players to understand that they must feel comfortable with their roles on the team."A bit of arrogance is needed when you go out there because it is here that the self belief comes out. I have been trying to get them to think as the game goes along because cricket is a tricky game."You can have the best plan and follow it and yet you lose the match. You need to alter your thinking as you go along and adjust to suit. Hopefully the players can continue to do this for the rest of the tournament."
Tridents captain Kieron Pollard said his team has had some challenges leading up to the tournament."The preparation was not the best in Barbados and even here. I am not making any excuses but we have not been playing together for long and the guys need some time to gel and get things right. Also, we missed one of our key players coming into this tournament and our replacement has not arrived as yet."Sri Lankan Jeevan Mendis will be flown in to replace Shakib Al Hasan, who was debarred from playing by his home board Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB)."T20 cricket is three hours of entertainment and once we can get that focus for three hours we will do better. There is still a lot more work to be done and we will be doing this over the next few days in Antigua."