Left: Trinidad and Tobago's captain Daren Ganga. Right: Dwayne Smith, the captain of Barbados.- file photos
COOLIDGE, Antigua (CMC)
Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados are brimming with confidence ahead of their Stanford Twenty20 semi-final tonight.
The long-standing rivals go after a place in the US$1 million final at the Stanford Cricket Ground and both camps were in a positive frame of mind ahead of yesterday's last-minute preparations.
While Trinidad and Tobago captain Daren Ganga was optimistic of advancing to the final for the second successive tournament, his opposite number Dwayne Smith was also buoyant that Barbados could go all the way.
"A lot of the guys are looking forward to this encounter. It's not going to be easy. We are aware that the Twenty20 game is very hard to predict. Whoever plays well on the day is going to win," Ganga said.
"We're very confident. We had two good games in the preliminary and quarter-final round. It's very important to carry that momentum."
Trinidad and Tobago coasted through to this stage, easily beating St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
In contrast, Barbados were given a stern test by Dominica and Grenada, but prevailed to win comfortably in both matches.
"Most of the teams that have qualified for the semi-final probably find themselves in a similar situation with lesser opposition, but in our two games, we've been clinical," Ganga said.
"We haven't been pushed to the line, but we are going to be prepared for that if it occurs. We can only control what we can control and that is all departments of our game.
"We've been bowling very disciplined. Our batsmen have been coming to the fore and producing the sort of totals that have been competitive. Our cricket seems to be on track. I'm not worried."
Trinidad and Tobago held a light training session at their hotel yesterday morning and were scheduled to train at the match venue under lights before Barbados used the facility.
While Barbados, who lost to Trinidad and Tobago at the quarter-final stage two years ago, have not been rated highly by the pundits, skipper Smith said he believed his team were ready to deliver a big performance.
"The guys are really up for it. Last year, Trinidad knocked us out. They've been beating us for a while," Smith said.
"We really want to get back at them and beat them to push them out of the tournament.
"We've been improving by the game. I don't see why we can't improve a lot more in this game as well. It is for the guys to go out there and stay focused."
Trinidad and Tobago have outplayed Barbados in different competitions over the past few seasons, but Smith has put it behind him.
"Some of those (defeats) came from things that were out of our hands," he said.
"There were times that we really didn't back ourselves. We didn't put enough application into our batting, but we are really up for it this time. We're going out there to win this game."
The teams (from):Trinidad and Tobago - Daren Ganga (captain), Lendl Simmons, William Perkins Dwayne Bravo Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin Sherwin Ganga, Richard Kelly, Rayad Emrit Dave Mohammed Samuel Badree, Jason Mohammed, Mervyn Dillon.
Barbados - Dwayne Smith (captain), Dale Richards, Patrick Browne, Ryan Hinds, Jonathan Carter, Alcindo Holder, Derrick Bishop, Ryan Nurse, Khalid Springer, Sulieman Benn, Tino Best, Kenroy Williams, Rashidi Boucher.
Umpires: Norman Malcolm, Goaland Greaves.
Dwayne Bravo
Do
you have a problem? Is something bothering
you? Write to