BY VINODE MAMCHAN

Coolidge, Antigua

A BRILLIANT display of chinaman and googly bowling from Dave Mohammed gave T&T their first Stanford Twenty/20 cricket crown and with it the first prize of US$1M.

Mohammed bowling his left arm unorthodox spin mesmerised the Jamaicans and at the end of the night at the picturesque Stanford Cricket ground, they were well and truly beaten by nine wickets.

Scores: Jamaica 91 all out, versus T&T 94/1.

T&T chasing 92 runs for victory at a rate of 4.60 ran away winners after just 9.2 overs reaching 94 for one.

Denesh Ramdin set the tone for the run chase by smashing 11 runs from just four balls with a four and six and although he fell to Jerome Taylor with the score on 14, T&T were on their way.

That little pocket of dynamite William Perkins batted bravely once again and treated the Jamaican Test duo of Daren Powell and Taylor with disdain. The T&T 50 came up after just five overs with Simmons playing some lusty drives on the other end, much to the delight of the 1000 or so T&T supporters, who had flown over to Antigua for the finals weekend.

The duo raced to a 50-run partnership off just 28 balls and nothing Chris Gayle could do, stopped the flow of runs.

Perkins ended unbeaten on 50 off 35 balls with six fours and one six, while Simmons remained undefeated on 26. The Merryboys batsman ended the match with a six over long on and this sparked an invasion by his teammates as the only title that had eluded T&T over the last couple seasons was about to make its way to the twin island republic.

Earlier, an error of judgement by the Jamaicans in their batting order, threw them off course and led to an early demolition with three overs and two balls to spare.

Skipper Chris Gayle, who is the only player to have scored an international Twenty/20 hundred did not open the batting as is custom. When he came in Mohammed bowled him for six and the threat of giant Jamaican was no more.

The match swung decisively in T&T’s favour when Bravo and Mohammed came on to bowl in tandem. After the early loss of Shawn Findlay to Emrit, Xavier Marshall, who batted well and Marlon Samuels got together and looked at ease. They added 42 runs in quick time before leg-spinner Samuel Badree removed Marshall for 20 that came off just 18 balls with one four and a six.

Bravo then accounted for Samuels caught at long off for 27 off 29 balls with four fours.

It was this point the Mohammed show started. Celebrating every wicket in his unique way the Princes Town resident sent back Gayle, Danza Hyatt Jamaica’s mainstay in the tournament, Carlton Baugh for a very aggressive 19 off seven balls and Jerome Taylor. He ended with figures off 4/20 off his ten overs.

Badree was as stingy as ever giving away only 12 runs from his four overs, while Emrit, who had to lead the attack in the absence of Mervyn Dillon, took 3/18.

Sir Allen Stanford said after the game that although Jamaica had lost, everyone was a winner on the night because the youths came out in numbers to look at the tournament.

“I am also looking forward when the West Indies regains the top spot in world cricket.”

Bravo, who won the play of the match for his run out of David Bernard said he was thankful to be with the T&T team and was grateful for all the hard work put in by the players and the management of the team.

Man of the match Mohammed said he wanted to dedicate his performance to his wife and child, who was back in Trinidad.

Losing captain Gayle said he was disappointed to be on the losing side.

“It was unfortunate to be on the losing side but at the same time, I must say that Daren and his team played very well.

“We tried to change our batting order but it didn’t work and in the end we ended up not posting enough runs to make a fight of it.”

T&T skipper Ganga said his team had a plan and they executed well.

“We had a plan for the Jamaicans and we really came out firing in the finals. When Gayle did not show to open the innings, it gave us a boost and we just took control from that point.

“Chris coming in with the spinners in action was always going to prove difficult and this worked in our favour.”

Ganga said he was happy for the players on his team will receive a major financial boost.

“The lifestyle of the guys will change and what is more important, is that now they can focus on their cricket, rather than holding down a 8 am to 5 pm job, which affects the time they have to devote to cricket.

“You would see that the players will now become more professional and their cricket will definitely improve.”

Scoreboard

Jamaica inns

S Findlay c Ramdin b Emrit 0

X Marshall b Badree 20

M Samuels c Simmons b Bravo 27

D Hyatt st Ramdin b Mohammed 4

C Gayle b Mohammed 6

W Hinds c Bravo b Emrit 10

C Baugh b Mohammed 19

D Bernard run out 1

J Taylor b Mohammed 0

N Miller b Emrit 0

D Powell not out 0

Extras (w1 lb3) 4

Total all out 91

Overs 16.4overs.

Fall of wkts: 0; 42; 48; 58; 63; 88; 89; 89; 91

Bowling: Emrit 2.4-0-18-3, Badree 4-0-12-1, Bravo 3-0-15-0, S Ganga 3-0-23-0, D Mohammed 4-0-20-4.

T&T inns

W Perkins not out 50

D Ramdin c Baugh b Taylor 11

L Simmons not out 26

Extras (w6, lb1) 7

Total for one wkt 94

Overs 9.2

Fall of wkts: 14.;

Bowling: D Powell 3-0-33-0, J Taylor 2-0-19-1, N Miller 3-0-23-0, M Samuels 1.2-0-18-0.

Result: T&T won by nine wkts.

T&T wins championship.

Incentives: T&T wins US$1M

Man of the match: Dave Mohammed gets US$100,000

Play of the match: Dwayne Bravo collects US$25,000.

The TTCB receives US$200,000 for cricket development.

T&T team members all get championship rings valued at US$5,000 each.

Jamaica receives US$100,000 for runners-up spot.