PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – Trinidad and Tobago lost their opening game of the Etihad Summer Twenty20 Festival in Canada Thursday when they went down to Afghanistan by 35 runs. Chasing the Afghans’ 138 all out off 19.5 overs, the Trinidadians were dismissed for a disappointing 103 with eight balls remaining at the Maple Leaf North-West Ground.
“Remember we are here to prepare for the Champions League and although we would like to win very match, we have to take into account that we are trying out new things with the bigger picture in mind,” T&T team manager Omar Khan said.
“We were happy that the players got a hit out in the middle and I must say the Afghanistan team played well and deserved to win.”
Winning the toss and batting, Afghanistan lost wickets steadily but their innings was bolstered by a cameo 78 from 47 balls from captain Nawroz Mangal.
The 26-year-old right-hander smashed seven sixes and one four and posted 41 off 22 balls for the sixth wicket with Gulbodin Naib (10), in what was the best stand of the innings.
However, once they were separated, the innings ended quickly with the last five wickets falling for eight runs in the space of 13 balls.
The leading bowler for the Champions League-bound T&T was off-spinner Sherwin Ganga, who snared five for 15, with medium pacer Rayad Emrit (2-27) and Richard Kelly (2-39) finishing with two wickets apiece.
Leg-spinner Samuel Badree, normally economical, went for 21 runs from his three overs.
In reply, T&T got off to a quick start with William Perkins smashing 19 from 17 balls with two sixes to dominate a 21-run opening stand off 19 balls with Adrian Barath.
However, Perkins’s dismissal triggered a major collapse with Sherwin Ganga and captain Daren Ganga both falling without scoring at the same score to leave T&T tottering at the end of the fourth over.
T&T continued to struggle despite Barath’s 36-ball 30, and the only other batsman to get into double figures was pacer Navin Stewart with 14 not out.
Pacer Shapoor Zadran finished with three for 23, while there were two wickets apiece for Hamid Hassan (2-14) and Mohammad Nabi (2-22).