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POWERGEN will defend their Carib Twenty20 title in the final tonight against Alescon Comets at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain.
The defending champions booked their place in the final easing past Clico Preysal by 30 runs while Comets stunned favourites Ceramic Merry Boys by 22 runs on Tuesday.
Preysal will play Merry Boys in the third place match starting at 4.30 pm with the final commencing at 8.30 pm.
Both teams in the final are evenly matched and contain experienced Twenty20 players who have been part of the successful national team that competed at the Stanford 20/20 and Stanford Super Series as well as runners-up at the Airtel Champions League Twenty20 tournament.
PowerGen have depended heavily on their spinners and all-rounder Sherwin Ganga is confident that their bowling attack will continue to be successful.
“Our spinners are definitely the strong point of the team and they have been working for us in all formats of the game. They have been the mainstay for the entire season and we are not known for fast bowling. I don’t think that bowling spinners alone have made us predictable because the final is one game and it would not make a difference changing that,” said Ganga yesterday.
Earlier this month, PowerGen retained their Eastern Credit Union Premiership Division title and they are confident of repeating the success in the Carib Twenty20 tournament.
“It is always difficult coming into a tournament being defending champions. Everybody expects you to win against and I think we have a versatile team that can repeat. We have (Akeil) Cooper, (Rishi) Bachan who have had good performances in the semi-finals and we just need a team effort,” said Ganga.
PowerGen have struggled to post a big total in the knockout stages in the tournament with batsmen Nicholas Sookdeosingh and Evin Lewis yet to get going. However, Ganga is not worried about the struggles of the batsmen, putting great confidence in the bowlers to ensure success.
“Our strength is in our bowling and we back ourselves to defend any total. We don’t have to change much but just play good cricket,” said Ganga.
Comets showed their resilience under the captaincy of Daren Ganga to register an upset victory over Merry Boys who were touted as favourites for the title.
Pacer, Rayad Emrit was named “Man-of-the-Match” after taking three for 12 to bowl Comets into the final. The Trinidad and Tobago pacer noted that Comets are prepared for the PowerGen spin attack.
“They have the same bowlers for the past two or three years and they are nothing new to us. Their strength is in their bowling but we have the batsmen who can negate their spin attack,” said Emrit yesterday.
Opening batsmen, Imran Khan and Satish Naidoo will have to get Comets to a good start if they are to ensure that the PowerGen spinners don’t take control of the match. They have the experience of Bajan players Kevin Stoute and Javon Searles who have been in good form along with Ganga (D) and Emrit.
“We need to get a good score...somewhere in the region of 140 or 150 runs which can also give us a psychological advantage. We have the bowling to defend this score and have batters who can get us a big score,” noted Emrit.
The former Stanford Superstars player explained that Comets contained a much better balanced team than PowerGen, having spinners and pace bowlers who can bat. He added that the win over Merry Boys has boosted the confidence of the team and the players are motivated to continue their good run in the tournament.
