``WITH sensible batting, we felt that we had a very good chance to get the total,'' declared Trinidad and Tobago manager Alec Burns. ``But the weather is something we cannot cater for.''
At 12 without loss in the eighth over going at 167, the local NorTel championship-chasing team seemed on the road. But then the wet hand of nature washed them off course.
Kamal Dennis never got to complete his first over and Daren Ganga and his men did not have the chance to decide their own destiny at the Queen's Park Oval yesterday afternoon. Instead, at just after 4 p.m., umpires Enite Ali and Terrence Birbal officially abandoned the semifinal.
That decision was enough to propel the table-topping Jamaicans into the final and relegate the home team to a third-place playoff with the Leeward Islands at Gilbert Park today.
It was an unsatisfactory way to lose. And the defeat will be made no easier to accept for T&T after their gallant effort in the field. When Christopher Gayle and Rayon Smith were set to take their opening partnership past the 100 mark and even when Gayle seemed to be progressing to a deserved century with the score on 117 for 1, more trouble seemed on the horizon for T&T.
But Rodney Sooklal began a brand new day with the wicket of Gayle (81). And by the time skipper Ganga picked up his fourth scalp to end the innings with just two balls to go, victory was far less uncertain. It was a commendable recovery. But it was striking as much for the way the locals kept their heads and plugged away as for the way the visitors lost theirs and crashed.
In 15 overs and five balls following Gayle's departure, they lost eight wickets for 49 runs.
And the collapse did an injustice to the fine foundation laid at the start.
Gayle, left-handed and of more aggressive intent, paced himself well and kept concentrating well throughout his 85-ball knock, hitting just five fours.
Smith, with his easy, almost elegant manner of playing was a good foil. He was worth more than his eventual 26. And for a long while, it seemed that he and Gayle would surpass the 123 they hit against Guyana in the first match.
But after the pair had posted 91 in 26 overs, Ganga turned to Sooklal (3 for 36). And in his first over, Smith hit him down Sherwin Ganga's throat at long-off.
Still, even after Gayle, his head in the air, missed a big hit at Sooklal and was bowled, there was no hint of the collapse to come. Captain Ricardo Powell after all had just thumped Sooklal for an almighty six onto the roof of the Learie Constantine stand. But in the next over, looking to smack Ganga, he miscued and was snapped up by a grateful short third-man.
The innings never recovered. And Ganga, played an unlikely captain's hand of spin, picking up three of the last four wickets. That helped to put victory within reach ... until the rain swept it away.