Saturday 25th July – Port of Spain, Trinidad
The Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel secured a place in the final of the
Hero Caribbean Premier League with a win over the Guyana Amazon Warriors thanks
to a brilliant bowling display from Samuel Badree and yet more wickets for
Dwayne Bravo. Lendl Simmons top scored for the Amazon Warriors but his half
century was a lone effort as no other batsman scored more than 12. Kamran Akmal
made his highest score of this year’s event for the victors as the Red Steel
secured victory with nine balls to spare.
Having won the toss and elected to bat the Amazon Warriors got off to a
steady start, making it to 40-1 in their Powerplay. Assad Fudadin was replaced
at the top of the order by Trevon Griffith but the move was not a successful
one. Griffith
managed one boundary before holing out on the mid-wicket boundary for five.
That brought Denesh Ramdin to the crease, but it was Lendl Simmons that was
doing the run scoring.
Ramdin never got going, eventually dismissed for six runs off 15 balls
when he looped a catch back to the bowler, Sulieman Benn. Things got worse for
the Guyana
side when the experienced Brad Hodge smashed a ball straight to the man on the
square leg boundary off Samuel Badree as they lost the benefit of the
Powerplay.
In an attempt to reintroduce some impetus to their flagging innings, the
Amazon Warriors promoted Sunil Narine up the order, but the spin bowler lasted
just two balls before he was bowled by Badree for a duck. Things got even worse
for the visitors when Umar Akmal also departed for no score, caught at first
slip off Benn, as they slumped to 56-5 at the halfway point of their innings.
On a pitch that was taking turn the Amazon Warriors needed to give their
excellent spinners a total that they could defend and Simmons stood firm on his
way to 64, the best score by a distance. The only support that he got
throughout the innings was from Christopher Barnwell who made 12 before he was
run out by Dwayne Bravo.
Simmons departed, run out in the 20th over, but he had at
least given his team a chance. Badree finished with figures of 2-9 off his four
overs and Dwayne Bravo continued his wicket taking form with two more to take
his tournament tally to an incredible 28 victims.
The Amazon Warriors got to three figures, setting the Red Steel 109 to win.
Jacques Kallis and Cameron Delport opened the batting and it wasn’t long before
Delport was gone, bowled by Veerasammy Permaul for three.
Kamran Akmal replaced the South African opener and immediately took a
liking to the Guyana
seamers as he smashed five successive boundaries off David Wiese. While Akmal
was motoring, at the other end Kallis was struggling, eventually departing for
eight, dismissed by Devendra Bishoo.
That wicket could well have seen a collapse in the Red Steel batting
line up, but Akmal and Darren Bravo found the boundary regularly. Despite there
being a number of dot balls strung together by the Amazon Warriors spinners,
those shots getting to the rope removed the pressure on the batsmen.
Darren Bravo fell to the bowling of Marchant de Lange when he skied a
catch to long on and Akmal also departed in the next over, bowled by Narine for
45, but the match had already become a formality by that stage. The Red Steel
were able to keep the risks they needed to take against the tricky Amazon
Warriors spinners to a minimum.
Dwayne Bravo and Jason Mohammad knocked off the remaining runs required,
but Mohammad should have departed for a two ball duck when he edged the ball to
slip but the umpire turned down the appeal. Mohammad made the most of his good
fortune as he guided his side to victory.
The Red Steel have gone about getting to the final the hard way, having
finished third in the group stage they have needed to beat the Jamaica
Tallawahs and then get past the Amazon Warriors. The Barbados Tridents
qualified automatically so have not played in a week. The Red Steel have played
three matches since the Tridents last took the field so will certainly not have
the problem of lacking match practice, but they may be weary.
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