By Colin Benjamin
in Barbados
Pre-tournament favourites Trinidad and Tobago known as the “Red Fury” continued their dominance in Regional twenty20 cricket, defeating Jamaica by 63 runs in the final of the 2012 Caribbean Twenty20 tournament at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados last night.
Taking first strike on the traditionally lively Oval surface that has assisted the fast-bowlers in the 12 matches played at this venue during the second phase of the competition, Trinidad posted an imposing total of 168/6, that was built on the back of 49 (43 balls, 3×4, 4×6) from Dwayne Bravo and an a unbeaten late flourish of 39 (13 balls, 1×4, 4×6) from the “beast” Kieron Pollard.
Then a solid team bowling effort aided them in restricting the boys from the “Land of Wood and Water” to 105/5 in their allotted 20 overs.
The win means that this supremely well-oiled Trinidad and Tobago machine has clinched its third regional Twenty20 title (2008 Stanford Twenty20 winners, Caribbean Twenty20 winners 2011 and 2012) and for the second consecutive year will be representing the region in this year’s Nokia Twenty20 Champions League in India in October.
In front of a large crowd which saw the Twin Island Republic’s supporters swathing the stadium in red and black, their West Indies opening pair of Lendl Simmons and Adrian Barath started confidently, taking the score to 35/0 after five overs.
The highlight of this period came in the 5th over, when the pair took 17 runs off a loose opening over from Andre Russell.
But the Jamaicans struck back, claiming two wickets in the space of five balls.
Firstly, leg-spinner Odean Brown struck with his third delivery as he induced Simmons to feather a catch to Carton Baugh Jr., then first ball of the seventh over Russell redeemed himself to claim the massive scalp of Darren Bravo poking at one outside the line of off-stump – thus slipping the defending champions to 42/2 in the seventh over.
By the half-way stage it became 61/3 when during the 10th over, Brown clinched his second wicket when Barath ran past a leg-break in attempting a lofted cover drive and was stumped.
The “Reggae Boys” were seemingly wresting control of the contest as it became 65/4, when the impressive Brown struck again by bowling Ramdin off the inside edge as the Trinidad skipper attempted to cut a straight ball.
Dwayne Bravo ended Brown’s spell of 4-0-22-3, with the shot of the innings – a glorious lofted cover drive for six that flew into the top tier of the Hewitt/Inniss stand.
Before the arrival of Pollard, the Trinidad think tank had sent Sunil Narine up the order in a pinch-hitting role and, along with Bravo the duo’s alliance was worth a quick-fire 42 runs in 4.4 overs, before Narine hit Dave Bernard to Shawn Findlay running forward from long-on.
Pollard was greeted with rapturous applause with the score on 107/5 and 25 balls to close his team’s innings. He really should have been out with the score on 125/5, when he flicked Santokie miles into air and Marlon Samuels dropped a sitter on the mid-wicket fence.
After Bravo fell one run short of his first half-century of the tournament on 133/5, the Jamaicans suffered dearly for dropping Pollard as he smoked 26 runs off the final over from Santokie – who has built a reputation as being the best twenty20 bowler in the Caribbean over the past few seasons.
The carnage in the over commenced on the second ball with a blazing shot along the carpet to the long-off boundary, then he smoked three towering sixes between the arc of long-on and mid-wicket.
Jamaica got their reply off to the worst possible start, when in the third over Nkrumah Bonner pushed Badree to Pollard at mid-on and was ridiculously run out. Samuels was then bowled for a duck second ball by Badree – leaving them in a massive spot of bother on 8/2 in the fifth over.
Three overs later it became 28/3 when Danza Hyatt hit Dwayne Bravo into the lap of Simmons at long-on, proceedings were petering out into one of total one-way traffic at Kensington, as the disciplined Trinidad attack began to show its superiority.
The remaining twelve overs saw them scoring a further 77 runs for the loss of two wickets as the Trinidadians celebrated their victory in true calypso fashion.
At the presentation ceremony captain Denesh Ramdin collected the winner’s trophy and prize money of US$62,500.
The player of the match was Dwayne Bravo and he received US$500 and a show-piece plaque for his big-hitting displays with the bat and outstanding fielding throughout the competition. Pollard was bestowed with the player of the tournament award.
Jamaica’s Bonner was adjudged emerging player of the tournament.
