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BY
VINODE MAMCHAN
THE MUCH anticipated Stanford Twenty/20 finals weekend,
is upon us and four of the top teams in the Caribbean will
be hoping to take away with US$1M first prize.
T&T will come up against long time rivals Barbados in
one semi-final on Friday night at the picturesque Stanford
cricket ground in Antigua, while the other semi-final pits
defending champions Guyana against KFC Cup champions Jamaica
on Saturday. The final is carded for Sunday.
T&T finished runners-up to Guyana last time around,
losing in the final over, when Narsingh Deonarine hoisted
Samuel Badree into the stands for six.
This sparked wild celebrations by the Guyanese, as a dejected
T&T outfit returned to the pavilion. T&T skipper
Daren Ganga still remembers the hurt and wants to put the
record straight this time around.
When Arena spoke to him he shied away from predicting the
outcome of the tournament, instead saying he was just focussed
on what was in front of him and that was the semi-finals
against Barbados.
The West Indies opener believes that his team has the psychological
edge over Barbados, going into their clash.
He said: “I think that my team has the psychological
advantage over Barbados given our recent successes against
them.”
T&T defeated Barbados by 46 runs in the semi-finals
of the inaugural tournament in 2006. Batting first, T&T
scored 142/9 off 20 overs and Barbados replied with 96 all
out.
Ganga continued: “We have to respect Barbados, they
have earned the rights just as us to compete in the semi-finals
and we are going into the match, as if it was the finals.
“We
have to ensure that we play a proper cricket match in order
to defeat the Barbadians and get into the finals. There
is never a perfect cricket match and we have to try and
give of our best and hope that the luck goes our way and
just give it our best shot.
“We
are aware of the strength of the opposition and we know
of our strength and it is now just a matter of planning
well and executing.”
T&T reached the semi-finals by defeating St Vincent
and the Grenadines, while the Barbadians humbled Grenada.
Ganga was a bit concerned with the fielding of the national
team. “We could do some work in the fielding department.
What we are hoping for is improvement all the way through
and we will be looking at this aspect of our game over the
next few days.
“Our
batting is coming along and although there was an early
hiccup in the last game, the character of our side showed,
when William Perkins and Dwayne Bravo rescued us and took
us to a competitive score.
“Our
bowling has not been pushed and we are hoping that everything
comes along nicely in this match.”
Twenty teams started this year’s Stanford Twenty20
Cup which is a knock-out competition featuring national
sides from several Caribbean territories vying for the million-dollar
grand prize.
The competition was created two years ago and is solely
financed by Antigua-based, Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford.
Matches
Semifinals
(at Stanford Cricket Ground, Coolidge, Antigua)
Friday
Barbados vs T&T
Saturday
Guyana vs Jamaica
Sunday
Final
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