PUTTING Trinidad and Tobago under pressure and sustaining that pressure was key to Barbados’ 17-run win over T&T in the NAGICO Super50 final at Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain on Saturday night.
That was the view of Barbados all-rounder Dwayne Smith who earned the Man of the Match award in the final after scoring a brisk 83 to lead his team to 252 all out before taking two catches and a wicket to help dismiss T&T for 235.
“It feels very good to play a good innings and then to go on a win the match and the trophy . . . this one was really deserved,” he told the media following the win.
Smith, who also thwarted T&T when the two sides met in the Group stage, was confident that his team could pull off the win even when T&T managed to claw their way back to make the contest close.
From a position of 143 for seven, T&T recovered to reach 204 for eight before Smith removed top-scorer Denesh Ramdin (68) lbw to silence the capacity crowd.
“There was always going to be a partnership. We knew that. All we needed to do was to keep the pressure on and keep fighting and I was sure that at some point in time we would come through and that’s what happened and now we have the trophy,” Smith added.
Meanwhile, the Barbados coach Henderson Springer put the victory down to the maturity of his team.
About lifting the Clive Lloyd trophy, Springer said: “This is what we came here to do and we had to work hard because it had some serious opposition in this tournament.
“Last time we won the one-day tournament many years ago, I think we lost a game and then had to recover but now I think the guys are coming of age.
“We got some experienced players in Benn, Fidel Edwards and Dwayne Smith who were tremendous throughout the tournament both on and off the field as far as motivation is concerned.”
He also believes that their victories over the hosts gives them a good indicator of the progress the Barbados team has made in recent years.
Last year, Barbados beat T&T twice in the four-day competition, once in the round robin and then in the final and this year they did the same in the limited overs competition with victories in the Group stage and then in the final.
“It is not often a Barbados team comes to Trinidad and beat them twice in two weeks. It is good and it gives us an idea of where our cricket is at,” he added.