Trinidad & Tobago entered the Champions League main draw after triumphing over Ruhuna Rhinos and Leicestershire quite convincingly. The underdogs keep their chances of qualifying to the semi-finals and making it big, with a win over South African side Cape Cobras on Tuesday winning a nail-biter with just 2 balls to spare thanks to a rapid 25 by Kevon Cooper in the slog overs. The West Indian side will now await the results of the Chennai Super Kings Vs New South Wales Blues match to take them to the next stage.
CLT20 2011: Trinidad & Tobago clinch a thriller
The side stated their campaign with a dismal performance against the Mumbai Indians managing just 98 runs and crumbling well within the 20 overs with meager contributions by Lendl Simmons and Jason Mohammed. Though they managed to take wickets at regular intervals with Ravi Rampaul’s strikes, the target was too little even with Mumbai being in poor form as they succumbed only managing to reduce their margin of defeat. In their second match against New South Wales Blues they lost by virtue of the one-over eliminator as the two teams were tied at 139 runs each. In the super over, The Blues hit a commendable 18 runs which proved a little too much even for the in-form Lendl Simmons.
With two close finishes not going their way, The Trinidadians had a must win game against the Super Kings which they won by 12 runs though the total seemed very achievable considering the batting prowess of Chennai but Sunil Narine came to their rescue capturing the vital wickets of MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Murali Vijay as Chennai folded for 111 granting Trinidad and Tobago their first win of the tournament.
Their next match was against the Cape Cobras which they had to win if they were hoping for a semi-final berth and so they did but not without a close finish this time as well. Had it not been for the heroics of Kevon Cooper they would have not only ended their own hopes but Chennai’s as well. Dane Vilas and Owais Shah had a vital stand of 87 runs which helped them put up a decent total of 137 after their openers fell cheaply. The target was well within the reach of T&T as Darren Bravo and Denesh Ramdin came up with valuable contributions leading to an edge of the seat finish. With Trinidad needing 34 runs in less than 4, Kevon Cooper came into bat thumping one straight over the bowler’s head for six at the end of the 17th over. Ravi Rampaul then came to the party smacking a boundary off Dale Steyn. Cooper then put a lull toss over the fence finishing the penultimate over at 129-7. Needing 9 runs from the last over, Rampaul fell to Charl Langeveldt as Cooper came on strike to thwack a four to the great joy of the dug-out and finished it off in style for the Trinidadians once again. With so many near death hits and misses, T&T will be up to it come the semi-finals if they manage to qualify!
Tags: Cape Cobras, Champions League T20, CLT20 2011, Cricket, Kevon Cooper, T&T, Trinidad & Tobago
