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ShareHyderabad: The fairytale continues. Trinidad and Tobago entered the final of Champions League T20 after hammering a hapless Cape Cobras by 7 wickets at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium here on Thursday night.
Cobras dropped three sitters and surrendered the match to the Caribbeans on a platter. Dwayne Bravo made up for his poor bowling by leading his side to the safe shores scoring a stroke-filled 58 off 34 balls.
But it was an electric start from the Trinidad and Tobago openers Adrian Barath (29) and William Perkins (20) that set the tone for the side's chase. The recorded an enterprising 50-run partnership.
The Cobras were generous to give a 'life' to Lendl Simmons, Darren Ganga (44*) and match-winner Bravo, the first two being dropped by Henry Davids and the T&T skipper by Justin Ontong. Ganga and Bravo made sure that Cobras paid for their lackadaisical effort in the outfield. The duo put on an unbeaten 93 to send the South Africans packing.
Earlier, Cobras' skipper Andrew Puttick decided to bat first. The left-hander, who had scored a century in his last game at the venue, took his time to settle down. The Africans got their first boundary in the third over of the game when a hitherto out-of-form Herschelle Gibbs glided one to third man.
Sherwin Ganga, who opened the bowling, struck in his second over cleaning up Puttick for 10. But Gibbs looked ominous, hitting a poorly-bowled 6th over from Bravo for 18 runs with four hits to the fence. Ganga, who was unimaginative with his bowling changes, brought in chinaman Dave Mohammed -- his fourth change in the seventh over.
It was a good move as No.3 Henry Davids was caught brilliantly by Mohammed off his own bowling. The scoreboard read 57 for 2 as JP Duminy joined Gibbs in the middle. The two best batsmen of Cobras added 25 runs in quick time. But Kieron Pollard got the breakthrough after castling Gibbs (42) off the first ball of the 10th over letting the small group of T&T supporters to indulge in wild celebrations.
Rory Kleindvelt came in and maintained the tempo by hitting two maximums over deep midwicket. But a juicy slow and low full-toss from Simmons tempted Kleindvelt as he holed out to Pollard at deep mid-wicket. Ontong too departed soon, giving Duminy his fourth partner in Vernon Philander. But the left-hander anchored the innings with a crucial 61 off 40 leading Cobras to a competitive 175.
Scorecard
Cape Cobras: A Puttick b S Ganga 10, H Gibbs b Pollard 42, H Davids c&b Mohammed 7, JP Duminy not out 61, R Kleinveldt c Pollard b Simmons 21, J Ontong c Stewart b Simmons 7, V Philander not out 13
Extras: (LB4, W10) 14
Total: (5 wickets; 20 overs) 175 (8.75 runs per over)
FoW: 1-30, 2-57, 3-82, 4-116, 5-130
Bowling: S Ganga 4-0-28-1, R Rampaul 3-0-19-0, D Bravo 3-0-46-0, D Mohammed 3-0-27-1, K Pollard 3-0-24-1, N Stewart 1-0-10-0, L Simmons 3-0-17-2
Trinidad & Tobago: W Perkins run out (Ontong/Kleinveldt) 20, A Barath lbw b Duminy 29, L Simmons c Kleinveldt b Ontong 20, D Ganga not out44, D Bravo not out 58
Extras: (W6, NB1) 7
Total: (3 wickets; 19.2 overs) 178 (9.20 runs per over)
FoW: 1-53, 2-58, 3-85
Bowling: C Langeveldt 4-0-27-0, M Zondeki 2-0-30-0, R Kleinveldt 2.2-0-31-0, C Henderson 4-0-32-0, JP Duminy 4-0-30-1, J Ontong 2-0-14-1, V Philander 1-0-14-0
