In front of a packed Queen's Park Oval, the T&T Red Steel booked a place in the knockout phase of the 2015 Hero CPLT20 tournament, with a seven-run victory over the Jamaica Tallawahs.
Jacques Kallis continued his impressive form in getting an unbeaten 61 and Dwayne Bravo smashed 49 not out to take the home team to 145 for three off their allotted 20 overs.
The local spinners then came into their own to restrict the Tallawahs to 138 for nine and now the Red Steel flies to Guyana with 11 points and a win there will see them book a place directly into the finals of the tournament.
Chris Gayle started off at a frenetic pace slamming Samuel Badree for 4, 6, 4, 6, 6 off the first five balls.
Bravo, never one to run from a challenge, took the ball and it resulted in the wicket off Gayle for 27 of 13 balls with two fours and three sixes. With the pitch assisting the spinners, a lot depended on the legendary Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardene but he failed getting three and his scores for this tournament resembled an international dialing code 0,3,10 1 0, 3. After his dismissal, wickets consistently fell and the main target for the Jamaicans was 96 runs to ensure they made it into the knockout phase at the expense of the St Lucia Zouks.
Sensible batting by Andre Russell took them over the mark but there was still time to get the winning score. He brought them close but got out to Bravo in the penultimate over for 36 and the last pair could not bring home the win with 16 needed off the last over.
Earlier, Bravo won the toss and decided to take first strike reason being, batting on the strip before it started to slow down. After the hardness of the new ball went, so too did the big shots, as timing became very difficult with the ball stopping on the pitch.
Kallis started off nicely and rotated the strike well but lost his partner William Perkins for only five. Pakistani Kamran Akmal came in but never got going and when he left for 14 of 21 balls, there was a loud roar at the Oval, as Darren Bravo the star in the last two games arrived in the middle.
However, it would not be his day, as he left the arena a disappointed man caught off the bowling off Andre Russell for five. This let in Dwayne and he batted very well in tandem with the rock solid Kallis. One thing they could not do was find the boundaries on a regular basis and the Tallawahs were always in the game.
The Red Steel would have been disappointed not to hit the 150-mark because they were well placed at 142 for three with one over to go but could only get three runs from Rusty Theron's last over.
Kallis remained unbeaten on 61 of 51 balls five fours and two sixes and Dwayne finished 49 not out off 30 balls with two fours and three sixes.
SCOREBOARD
Red Steel vs Tallawahs
J Kallis not out 61
W Perkins lbw Taylor 5
K Akmal run out 14
DM Bravo c Theron b Russell 5
DJ Bravo not out 49
Extras 4b, 2lb, 5w 11
Total for 3 wkts (20ovs) 145
Fall of wkts: 34, 66, 76.
Bowling: J Theron 4-0-22-0, D Vettori 4-0-25-0, J Taylor 4-0-27-1, K Santokie 4-0-29-0, A Russell 4-0-36-1
Tallawahs inns
C Gayle c Botha b Bravo 27
C Walton c & b Benn 11
M Jayawardene c DJ Bravo b Benn 3
N Deonarine st Akmal b Davis 12
J Blackwood b Badree 12
C Lynn st Akmal b Badree 10
D Vettori lbw Badree 0
A Russell c sub Deyal b Bravo 36
K Santokie lbw Cooper 10
R Theron not out 3
J Taylor not out 5
Extras 2b, 1lb, 5w, 1nb 9
Total for 9 wkts (20ovs) 138
Fall of wkts: 32, 36, 54, 65, 74, 74, 87, 120, 130.
Bowling: S Badree 4-1-35-3, J Kallis 1-0-2-0, D Bravo 4-0-18-2, S Benn 4-0-28-2, J Botha 2-0-11-0, D Davis 2-0-12-1, K Cooper 3-0-29-1.
Result: T&T Red Steel won by 7 runs.