PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC- Coaches of the two teams involved in Sunday night’s opening clash of the Caribbean T20 tournament both claim they had a chance of pulling of victory barring the inclement weather which forced the match to be abandoned.
Trinidad and Tobago made 128-9 off 20 overs and Jamaica reached 5-without loss in 1.2 overs before rain forced officials to abandon play in a charged atmosphere of 15,000 spectators.
“It was going to be a cracker. On that pitch, in those conditions, we felt we could defend our score. We felt we were about 15 runs short of the target we were originally looking for, but we knew we had the bowling to restrict Jamaica” said David Williams, Head Coach of defending champs Trinidad and Tobago.
“It was looking like a tight finish in the making. We felt it would go down to the wire, but we were confident of winning,” said the former T&T and West Indies wicket-keeper.
The home team won the toss, batted first and struggled on a slow pitch and heavy outfield, facing eight overs of dot balls and clearing the boundary twice.
Dwayne Bravo showed the value of his experience as he worked the balls into the gaps to reach a top score of 30 off 27 balls.
Krishmar Santokie was again Jamaica’s best bowler with 2-17 off four overs to move to 35 wickets and maintain his record as the leading wicket-taker in the tournament.
“We bowled and fielded well and that was the ideal start we were looking for in this tournament. There was a lot of energy from the fielders and this helped to back up from good bowling from start to finish” said Junior Bennett, Jamaica’s longstanding coach
“Chasing a score of six-and-a-half per over was ideal for us. We knew we didn’t have to take any undue risks when we batted so we could pace our innings. We didn’t come away with a victory, but this match was a good start for us.”