African utility against Caribbean magic by Rohit Sakunia

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Player:	AB Barath, D Ganga, WKD Perkins, AG Puttick, JP Duminy
Event:	Champions League 2009/10

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DateLine: 22nd October 2009

 

A flamboyant and exuberant Trinidad and Tobago get ready to fight against a thoroughly professional Cape Cobras today in the second semi-final of the CL T20.

 

The men in red have reached here winning all their games and not even once apart from their match against the New South Wales have the kings from the Calypso kingdom looked in any sort of bother.

 

Even the Cobras for that matter have not seen big struggles reaching here. They hae won all their games apart from the last one where Delhi Daredevils took the better of them on a pitch that has placed a big question mark on wickets in an otherwise pretty well co-ordinated tournament.

 

Cobras though would know that the defeat was more because of the track then their abilities but what would be worrying them is that they play Trinidad and Tobago on a beautiful batting square. If the Trinidadians start smacking the bowling attack, it could well be a position that for the rest of the match the Cobras just keep doing the catch-up bit.

 

For the Caribbean outfit, all the batsmen have looked in more than decent touch and added to that their ability to be fealess against world class bowling attacks has added many a feathers in the team resume. Kieron Pollard, William Perkins, Barath have been the extra special ones in the batting attack.

 

The schoolboys type enthusiasm in the Trinidadian line-up is something that is not seen often and that only speaks more about the raging enthusiasm amongst the 11 well led by a former West Indian Darren Ganga. Ganga with this effort has done nothing wrong to pave his way back to the national 11 and even though his batting still leaves a lot to be achieved, his leadership abilities could well see him paving his way in. ir game.

 

The one small issue with the Trinidad team could be their bowling and if JP and company get stuck into them, we could see a huge score from the South African outfit. The spinners have been doing well for the West Indians, but the seamers still have a long way to go.

 

On the other hand problems don't seem to be ending for Andrew Puttick. One of the major ones would be the failure of Herschelle Gibbbs at the top of the order. Gibbs has just not got going in the tournament thus far and his early wicket has always put the side in trouble first up. The batting though apart from Gibbs has been decent as JP Duminy and Puttick have done well in the tournament and they also have some huge hitters down the order to take care of a hige finish.

 

As regards the pitch, the track at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium looks a beauty. According to the curator, Mr. Chandrashekhar, the second semi-final should be another high-scoring affair after the run riot between the Eagles and Trinidad and Tobago.

 

Thus, what we can expect is another thriller and with the abilities of both the sides the audience are in for a treat for their eyes.