Simmons leads Warriors to victory over Red Steel
The water yesterday did not came from the clouds as was expected in Guyana Tuesday night but from the eyes of the T&T Red Steel players, as they missed a golden chance of going straight into the finals of the 2015 Hero CPLT20, tournament by going under to the Amazon Warriors by seven wickets.
The loss was made even bitter by the fact that the victory was orchestrated by one of their own countryman in Lendl Simmons. The right hander was given a reprieve by Dwayne Bravo with his score on five and by the third umpire Nankumar Shivsankar a little later on and was able to score 65 not out of 51 balls with five fours and three sixes, to lead the Warriors to 118/3 of 17 overs, as they overhauled the Red Steel's 117 for eight off their 20 overs. Cameron Delport scored 44 for the Red Steel who struggled on a poor T20 pitch at Providence.
The Warriors win means that defending champions Barbados Tridents go directly into Sunday's final. The Red Steel finished their campaign on 11 points the same as Amazon Warriors but the Guyanese team finished ahead of them and into second place.
It means that the Red Steel will now play Jamaica Tallawahs in tomorrow's knockout and Guyana will await the winner of that match for the semi-finals on Saturday at the Oval.
Set just 118 runs for victory, Warriors took control after an opening partnership of 54 between Simmons and Assad Fudadin. Although skipper Denesh Ramdin went cheaply, Simmons stayed the course and brought home the victory, with assistance from Australian Brad Hodge who made 33. After being dropped by Bravo off Derone Davis, Simmons was given not out by Shivsankar after television replays clearly showed the batsmen getting a leading edge back to Johan Botha but the he decided it was a 'bump ball'.
Earlier, Bravo won the toss and decided to bat first, given the nature of the track to slow down as the match progresses. His main act in the opening role Jacques Kallis could not deliver for him this time around as he was out in the second over, caught behind of fellow South African Marchant de Lange for three. Javon Searles then came and went soon after and at 19/2, the T&T Red Steel needed to rebuild.
Delport took the lead and batted well striking boundaries regularly as he adapted well to the surface. He and Darren Bravo was able to get 44 runs from the powerplay with lightening flashing regularly over the Green Stand. However the lightening was also coming on the field from the pacy de Lange who then sent back the inform Bravo for three to kill of the momentum he and Delport were building as they had added 36 runs from 4.3overs.
Delport then dumped part-timer Hodge into the stands for six and next ball punched him fiercely to Simmons at cover who took a brilliant catch, sending him back for 44 off 30 balls, including six fours and a six.
The key the match was how well Red Steel batted in the middle overs and with the ball turning square, Dwayne Bravo and Botha found scoring really difficult. They grafted added 15 runs from 4.3 overs when Sunil Narine sent back Bravo leg before for five.
At 80 for five, the next man in was Kamran Akmal who brought with him all his experience of playing on turning tracks in Pakistan was next in but he too was undone by a big leg-break which found his top edge.
Scoring remained difficult and towards the end Botha finally fell for 22 off 33 balls with two fours. The best of the Warriors bowlers was Marchant de Lange with 4/23.
SCOREBOARD
Red Steel vs Warriors
Red Steel inns
J Kallis c Ramdin b de Lange*3
C Delport c Simmons b Hodge*44
J Searles c Barnwell b de Lange*6
DM Bravo c Ramdin b de Lange*3
J Botha b Bishoo*22
DJ Bravo lbw Narine*5
K Akmal c Permaul b Bishoo*10
K Cooper c Wiese b de Lange*10
D Davis not out*1
S Badree not out*3
Extras 4b, 1lb, 5w*10
Total for 8 wkts*117
Fall of wkts: 7, 19, 55, 65, 80, 97, 111, 113.
Bowling: V Permaul 4-0-20-0, M de Lange 4-0-23-4, S Narine 4-0-17-1, D Wiese 2-0-21-0, B Hodge 2-0-12-1, D Bishoo 4-0-19-2.
Warriors inns
L Simmons not out*65
A Fudadin c Cooper b Bravo*9
D Ramdin st Akmal b Botha*
B Hodge b Bravo*
U Akmal not out*3
Extras 3w*3
Total for 3 wkts (17ovs)*118
Fall of wkts: 54, 62, 114.
Bowling: S Badree 3-0-21-0, D Davis 3-0-27-0, S Benn 4-0-17-0, D Bravo 3-0-22-2, J Botha 3-0-15-1, K Cooper 1-0-16-0.
Result: Amazon Warriors won by 7 wickets.
FINAL STANDINGS
Team*W*L*NR*PTS*NRR
Tridents*10*6*4*0*12*+0.182
Warriors*10*5*4*1*11*+0.589
Red Steel*10*5*4*1*11*-0.077
Tallawahs*10*4*5*1*9*-0.424
Zouks*10*4*5*1*9*-0.679
Patriots*10*4*6*0*8*+0.228