By Anand Philar, IANS,
Chennai : In what would be a key game in Group A, 2009 champions New South Wales Blues would be looking to get their campaign back on track by getting past Trinidad and Tobago when the two teams meet in the Champions League T20 tournament here Wednesday.
The Blues went down to Cape Cobras in their opening fixture with a performance that did not reflect the talent within, and they would need to up their game a lot more if they hope to put it across the Caribbean outfit in a repeat of the 2009 final.
Trinidad and Tobago too lost their opening game in Bangalore Monday night to the resurgent Mumbai Indians by one wicket in a tense finish. The extraordinary match saw the West Indians being shot out for 98 while Mumbai laboured to a last-ball win after losing nine wickets.
On paper, the Blues look a superior outfit with a mix of experienced players and young talent, but they need to really fire collectively against a quality fielding side like T&T if they hope to remain in contention for a semi-final spot.
Blues’ inability to build on a good start that Shane Watson and David Warner provided proved to be their undoing against the Cobras who made light of the modest target of 136.
Blues also might have erred by omitting proven match-winner and seamer Stuart Clark while all-rounder Watson was surprisingly not asked to bowl. The indications are that skipper Simon Katich would review his decisions and add some muscle to his line-up.
In contrast, the T&T, who came through the qualifying competition, have proved to be a bunch of enthusiastic youngsters who though tend to ride much more on their spectacular fielding than bat and ball as was evident in the Bangalore game when they were shot out for less than 100.
However, seamer Ravi Rampaul and spinner Sunil Narine have proved to be dangerous customers with their wicket-taking ability. As such, T&T would be looking up to the duo that picked up five wickets between them in Bangalore, to deliver again while also hoping for their batsmen to regain the form they had shown in the qualifying tournament last week.
In more ways than one, the contest will be between two well-matched sides, but given the circumstances, collective experience should dictate the course of the match.