Towards the end of the round robin stage, group A still remains wide open with all the five teams eyeing a semi-final slot. The line up will be clear after Tuesday’s double header, the first of which is between Trinidad & Tobago and Cape Cobras. The winner will definitely strengthen its prospects of a top two finish while as, the losing side will have to pack its bags and leave by the next flight home.
To begin with, Cape Cobras seem to have a simpler target than their opponents, the South African side just needs two points to ensure a place in the last four. From three games, they have three points with a win and a loss plus the one point from the abandoned game against Mumbai. Probably, that crucial point has made life easy. Mumbai having played all their matches are stuck at five points but their net run rate is inferior to the Cobras’ NRR. So, a win would take Cobras to five points and place them one place higher than Mumbai.
On the other hand, two tight losses have made Trinidad and Tobago’s further progress in the Champions League difficult. First, they will have to comprehensively beat Cobras so that the Run Rate gets a fillip and then hope that NSW are beaten by Chennai in a close game. The fact that they are playing before Chennai has put the West Indian side in a tight spot; even if they manage to emerge victorious, Chennai will still exactly know the margin of victory to win the battle of run rates.
All these heady permutations and combinations apart, the two teams will have to put in a solid contribution as it is a virtual knock-out situation. T&T would be happy playing at the same ground where they overcame home favourites, Chennai due to a disciplined bowling effort. They would once again want unconventional off-spinner Sunil Narine to use the spin friendly conditions and put brakes on the Cobras’ scoring.
To counter that, Cape Cobras will bank on a batting line-up full of quality players. Gibbs, Kemp, Duminy are all match-winners. And, it remains to be seen if they fire in the all important match or the Daren Ganga led side are able to rein them.
Squads:
Trinidad and Tobago: Samuel Badree, Adrian Barath, Darren Bravo, Kevon Cooper, Rayad Emrit, Daren Ganga (C), Sherwin Ganga, Shannon Gabriel, Jason Mohammed, Dave Mohammed, Sunil Narine, William Perkins, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Lendl Simmons.
Cape Cobras: JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Justin Kemp (C), Rory Kleinveldt, Charl Langeveldt, Richard Levi, Johann Louw, Justin Ontong, Robin Peterson, Vernon Philander, Andrew Puttick, Michael Rippon, Owais Shah, Dale Steyn, Dane Vilas.
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