HYDERABAD, India, CMC – With their sensational win over Indian Premier League giants Deccan Chargers on Wednesday now in the past, Trinidad & Tobago will focus their attention on their opening second round clash of the Twenty20 Champions League today.
They will face with strong Australian state side New South Wales as they eye a spot in the last four of the inaugural, cash-rich tournament.
The unfancied Caribbean side have been the surprise team in preliminary round after pulling off two memorable wins to finish Group A unbeaten and top the standings.
Skipper Daren Ganga said while T&T needed to win one of their two second round games to reach the semi-finals, they would not allow themselves to become complacent.
“We are in a pretty good position going into the Super Eights. With two teams from the four in our group moving on to the semis and us having carried over two points, we need to at least win one match to move on,” said the experienced Ganga.
“However, this is not the standard we set ourselves and we are going to aim at winning both games to keep the momentum going.”
T&T beat Somerset in their opening game on Monday before returning to upset Deccan Chargers to finish their preliminary round campaign on a high.
Following their clash with NSW, T&T will play Eagles from South Africa in their final second match.
“The boys have performed well and our thinking from this point is that every game is a final,” Ganga noted.
“I know that our first game will be very tough against a good NSW team but we are ready and the belief in this team is quite incredible.”
T&T were the talk of the town on Monday after they successfully defended their 149 to beat the heavily favoured Deccan Chargers.
Along with their traveling supporters, the Caribbean side celebrated late into the night while receiving congratulatory messages from back home.
Team manager Colin Borde said the players had performed beyond expectation but urged them to put their success behind them and focus on the upcoming matches.
“We were never in the minds of the locals here when this tournament started. They were talking up all the other teams but now the focus has shifted to us,” Borde pointed out.
“People have seen what the boys are capable of and all of a sudden we are title contenders. I have told the guys to keep focused on the job at hand and let’s concentrate on what is before us and forget all the hype around the tournament at this point in time.”
T&T had a light training session at the Rajiv Ghandi Stadium on Thursday and will hold a strategy meeting today before the 8 pm (10:30 am Eastern Caribbean time) match.
They will face a NSW side which comprises a number of Australia players including skipper Simon Katich, Brett Lee, Doug Bollinger, Nathan Hauritz, Phillip Hughes, David Warner and Stuart Clark.
TEAMS (from)T&T – Daren Ganga (captain), Samuel Badree, Navin Stewart, Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul, Denesh Ramdin, Kieron Pollard, William Perkins, Sunil Narine, Dave Mohammed, Adrian Barath, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Bravo, Rayad Emrit, Sherwin Ganga.
NSW – Simon Katich (captain), Aaron Bird, David Warner, Dominic Thornely, Steven Smith, Daniel Smith, Ben Rohrer, Steve O’Keefe, Brett Lee, Doug Bollinger, Simon Keen, Stuart Clark, Nathan Hauritz, Moises Henriques, Phillip Hughes.