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Hyderabad - A supreme effort from Kieron Pollard blasted Trinidad & Tobago from despair to delight in less than three overs to beat the New South Wales Blues by four wickets in their Champions League T20 match on Friday.
Chasing 171, the Caribbean outfit stayed with the comparative NSW score throughout, but lost their first three wickets quite quickly, before Daren Ganga (32) and Darren Bravo (27) put together a neat 47- run partnership.
However, the writing looked to be on the wall when Denesh Ramdin departed with the score on 118/6 – T&T needing another 53 runs off only 28 deliveries.
Pollard then treated the crowd to an innings of rare ferocity, as he suddenly took an immense liking to the medium-pacers of Moises Henriques – who admittedly bowled an absolute shower – and smashed the latter for 27 runs in the 17th over.
For some reason, only known to him, Simon Katich asked the poor fellow to bowl the second last over as well.
With Henriques’ confidence totally shattered, it came as no surprise when Pollard laid into him, and off the first three deliveries smashed the 16 runs required for victory.
In the end, man-of-the-match Pollard was not out on 54 (18 balls, 5x4, 5x6).
Henriques went for 49 off his 3.3 overs.
Pollard was very humble after the match when he said, "I think I came in at a crucial time, and the team was in trouble. It was a team effort, but there is always room for improvement.
“I always back myself to do it for the team when it needs it. Ramdin did well, and I realised it was my responsibility to win it for T&T. All of those shots were my favourites."
Earlier, Phillips Hughes scored a 64-ball 83 to put New South Wales Blues in the driving seat with 170/4.
Openers Hughes and David Warner vindicated their captain's choice to bat first, and posted 121 runs for the first wicket before Warner fell to a slower one from Dave Mohammad for a well-played 63 off only 41 deliveries.
Sherwin Ganga pegged the scoring rate back a bit with excellent figures of 4-0-17-0, and the effervescent Dwayne Bravo had his bit of revenge when he took three wickets in the final over - had it not been for this, the target could have been so much greater.
The one T&T bowler who suffered most, though, was Samuel Badree, who was taken for 24 runs by Hughes in his only over.
Katich did his best to hide his disappointment, "A fantastic effort at the end. We got blown away. They kept us down in the middle of our innings. Our guys did a great job (with the bat) but that last minute blitz blew us away. It was a great wicket, great outfield."
A jubilant Ganga said he backed his team all the way.
"It's going to be a carnival atmosphere back in T&T. We love to party.
“It was a great effort to restrict NSW to 170, and we knew we had the right players to chase this down. I had faith in the bowlers, but we pulled things back well. We were not under pressure chasing 170, we knew we had players in our camp to achieve this.
“I can't find a word to describe it (Pollard's innings) and he's not the only player we have who is looking forward to playing a great innings for our team."
Teams:
New South Wales Blues: PJ Hughes, DA Warner, SM Katich (capt), MC Henriques, BJ Rohrer, SPD Smith, DLR Smith (wk), B Lee, NM Hauritz, SR Clark, DE Bollinger
Trinidad & Tobago: LMP Simmons, WKD Perkins, DJ Bravo, D Ganga (capt), DM Bravo, KA Pollard, D Ramdin (wk), S Ganga, D Mohammed, R Rampaul, S Badree
Chasing 171, the Caribbean outfit stayed with the comparative NSW score throughout, but lost their first three wickets quite quickly, before Daren Ganga (32) and Darren Bravo (27) put together a neat 47- run partnership.
However, the writing looked to be on the wall when Denesh Ramdin departed with the score on 118/6 – T&T needing another 53 runs off only 28 deliveries.
Pollard then treated the crowd to an innings of rare ferocity, as he suddenly took an immense liking to the medium-pacers of Moises Henriques – who admittedly bowled an absolute shower – and smashed the latter for 27 runs in the 17th over.
For some reason, only known to him, Simon Katich asked the poor fellow to bowl the second last over as well.
With Henriques’ confidence totally shattered, it came as no surprise when Pollard laid into him, and off the first three deliveries smashed the 16 runs required for victory.
In the end, man-of-the-match Pollard was not out on 54 (18 balls, 5x4, 5x6).
Henriques went for 49 off his 3.3 overs.
Pollard was very humble after the match when he said, "I think I came in at a crucial time, and the team was in trouble. It was a team effort, but there is always room for improvement.
“I always back myself to do it for the team when it needs it. Ramdin did well, and I realised it was my responsibility to win it for T&T. All of those shots were my favourites."
Earlier, Phillips Hughes scored a 64-ball 83 to put New South Wales Blues in the driving seat with 170/4.
Openers Hughes and David Warner vindicated their captain's choice to bat first, and posted 121 runs for the first wicket before Warner fell to a slower one from Dave Mohammad for a well-played 63 off only 41 deliveries.
Sherwin Ganga pegged the scoring rate back a bit with excellent figures of 4-0-17-0, and the effervescent Dwayne Bravo had his bit of revenge when he took three wickets in the final over - had it not been for this, the target could have been so much greater.
The one T&T bowler who suffered most, though, was Samuel Badree, who was taken for 24 runs by Hughes in his only over.
Katich did his best to hide his disappointment, "A fantastic effort at the end. We got blown away. They kept us down in the middle of our innings. Our guys did a great job (with the bat) but that last minute blitz blew us away. It was a great wicket, great outfield."
A jubilant Ganga said he backed his team all the way.
"It's going to be a carnival atmosphere back in T&T. We love to party.
“It was a great effort to restrict NSW to 170, and we knew we had the right players to chase this down. I had faith in the bowlers, but we pulled things back well. We were not under pressure chasing 170, we knew we had players in our camp to achieve this.
“I can't find a word to describe it (Pollard's innings) and he's not the only player we have who is looking forward to playing a great innings for our team."
Teams:
New South Wales Blues: PJ Hughes, DA Warner, SM Katich (capt), MC Henriques, BJ Rohrer, SPD Smith, DLR Smith (wk), B Lee, NM Hauritz, SR Clark, DE Bollinger
Trinidad & Tobago: LMP Simmons, WKD Perkins, DJ Bravo, D Ganga (capt), DM Bravo, KA Pollard, D Ramdin (wk), S Ganga, D Mohammed, R Rampaul, S Badree
