It has been a great champion’s league and one team that has stood out in this campaign has been Trinidad & Tobago. The Caribbean flair has been at its best in this tournament. The way they have played has made people go nostalgic of their supremacy in seventies and eighties. Though twenty -twenty format doesn’t give too much ground to exhibit fast bowling action, the little bit we have seen hasn’t been that attractive and it’s more of their spin bowling that has attracted spectators to their team.
But let’s get back to their batting prowess that has kept everyone of their opposition team stunned. In the initial stages, whether it was the Deccan chargers or Somerset the thing that caught my eye in their batting was relentless hitting even when they lost continuous wickets. In the match against Somerset they were tottering at one stage due to loss of bulk wickets but they kept the run rate going and did not get bogged down at any stage. The important thing in 20-20 is not to lose momentum. Because unlike in ODI or test match where you get at least 3 to 4 comeback points for odi or even more for test matches, the 20-20 gives you none. Once you lose momentum it means the game is out of your hands. One important comparison here would be the semifinals between India and Australia in inaugural 20-20 world cup. Australia were literally cruising at one stage and just one wickets turned the tide in India’s favor and Aussies never got back into the match.
The next stage was even more interesting one when their bowling department which is their weak point was exposed to a great deal. They simply didn’t have any bowlers to restrict rampage from New South Wales openers. They were continuously hitting their way to take T&T out of finals in one innings but they were kept somewhat tight down to a reasonable total of 170. This was the perfect setting to test Windies batting flair versus Aussie bowling machines. The stage was set nicely but the main question in everyone’s mind is will the T&T batting hold its end till the target is achieved. What unfolded was something remarkable. The bloke from Trinidad called Pollard had something we hadn’t seen for long time, at least in the Common Indian Viewers context. He simply destroyed NSW bowling and did something which everyone in the world except Australia of course loves to see, the perfect Aussie demolition. We have seen umpteen batsmen in the world trying to threaten Aussie bowling but what pollard did on that special night was something totally outstanding. He not only made sure T&T won that match but he also made sure there were absolute no hiccups in achieving the target and NSW bowlers were totally stunned at the end of it. This flair just continued in the next match in this second stage against Eagles where we saw the highest score of the tournament. What T&T achieved in these two matches was very enjoyable to watch for any neutral spectator.
The next stage was semifinals and T&T was the only team out of the four teams who qualifies for the semifinal to be unbeaten. Therefore the expectations were as expected huge this time as they had gathered many more fans than their usual T&T fans. But the way they won this match against S.African champions cape cobras was again very pleasant to watch. They chased down this time an even bigger target than the NSW target but the more important point was they did it without using Pollard and Ramdin who had been their stars in other matches. This set them up for a title clash against NSW who have already had a taste of their bitter medicine.
The final was initially completely dominated by T&T bowling which seemed to have cut across the spine of the NSW batting but T&T were in for surprise as Brett Lee adopted T&T tactics of not getting bogged down by flurry of wickets and he continued to show positive intent throughout his innings. This led to a more than respectable total of 159 which they successfully defended too. What let down T&T this stage was too much of hitting and very little sensible batting. Especially Pollard’s wicket where he had just scored couple of sixes and the target was still at some distance and he needed to stay till the end. His hot at that’s stage was inexplicable. Anyways even though T&T did not win the tournament, they had won the hearts of many spectators around the world. Hope there is lot more Caribbean flair in future for us to enjoy.
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