Trinidad & Tobago were assisted in winning their crunch Champions League t20 clash with the Titans by Messrs Duckworth and Lewis after a heavy storm ended the match three overs from its natural conclusion.
Despite numerous warnings of the potential for heavy rain at the Ahmedabad venue, the decision not to opt for sunnier climes came back to haunt the tournament’s organisers once again.
AB De Villiers was denied an opportunity to take Titans to the last four by the Ahmedabad rain (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This time a match that looked destined to go to the wire was curtailed with Titans 153 for six and needing a further 36 runs from 18 balls. Their talismanic batsman AB de Villiers was set to take charge, but they were 6-runs adrift of D/L parity when the heavens denied him.
Earlier the match had been the tail of two openers.
For Trinidad & Tobago the relatively unknown 21-year-old left-hander Evin Lewis struck 70 from 35 balls with 7 fours and 5 sixes. He ensured the Caribbean champions recovered from a shaky 4 for one in the second over.
He balanced attack with sound judgment and the bravery of youth before running out of steam and top edging a sweep at a full toss from Roelof van der Merwe. Lewis shouldered the senior role in a second wicket partnership with Darren Bravo worth 109 in 10.4 overs.
Bravo then took charge, taking his own score to 63 from 44 balls with 5 fours and a six. He fell to make the score 164 for four midway through the 18th over. With Bravo there T&T seemed destined for 200-plus, but without him lost momentum and settled for 188 for six.
T&T had only lost three times before when posting a total of over 150 and the highest successful chase in the Sarder Patel Stadium had been 151 for 2 by Rajasthan Royals. The Titans needed a win to guarantee a semi-final berth, but had their work cut out.
It was another opener in Henry Davids who excelled during the Titan’s powerplay six.
The 33-year skipper scampered around the crease maximising scoring opportunities in his 22-ball 42 which included 6 fours and 2 sixes, one of which took a good length ball from Emrit and powered it over extra cover off the back foot on to the stadium’s roof. The right-hander was as surprised as anyone at how cleanly he struck the ball.
In posting an opening stand of 65 inside 7 overs with Jacques Rudolph, he had cemented his place at the top of the run scoring charts with 197 at 49.25. He then played around a straight one from Emrit which sparked a collapse that saw 4 wickets fall in four overs for 23 runs.
Farhaan Behardien added 49 for the fifth wicket with de Villiers, but he was caught in the deep off Sunil Narine and David Wiese was caught at slip off the same bowler two balls later. Narine consolidated his position at the top of the wicket-taking table with 8 scalps now at just 7.12 apiece.
Magaliso Mosehle, the busy wicketkeeper, was 11 not out from 5 balls and de Villiers 23 from 13 when the rain, wind and gloom descended. It never looked likely they would return.
T&T had given themselves an opportunity despite their final game being against table topping Chennai Super Kings. The Titans had seen their chances of a route to the semi-finals taken out of their own hands.
The watching Hyderabad Sunrisers had briefly seen a chink of light beneath greying skies. They needed to play and win big against Brisbane Heat to keep themselves in the mix. No such luck however as the final game of the day was abandoned without a ball bowled.
Group B
| Teams | Mat | Won | Lost | Tied | N/R | Pts | Net RR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Super Kings | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | +1.143 |
| Trinidad & T | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | +0.407 |
| Titans | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | +0.228 |
| Sunrisers | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | -0.622 |
| Brisbane | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -1.028 |
James Buttler
As the editor of World Cricket Badger he is intent on building the website to give quality coverage of the domestic game around the world.
He is also the presenter of the Cricket Badger Radio Show on Radio Yorkshire every Tuesday evening between 7-9pm UK time.
James was the full-time Media Manager at Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 2007 and 2010.
James is a published author, a writer/video contributor to many cricket publications and a complete cricket badger!
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