CPL 2015 Final: Kamran Akmal and Deplort script maiden title win for T&T Red Steel

CPL 2015 Final: Kamran Akmal and Deplort script maiden title win for T&T Red Steel: The Dwayne Bravo led Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel team deflated the Barbados Tridents by 20 runs to triumph to their first ever title glory in the history of Caribbean Premiere League (CPL).

When Dwayne Bravo won the toss on the biggest party night of the league – CPL 2015 final, he had no hesitation in batting first as chasing any sort of total in the final is always considered to be tricky. And then the T&T side didn’t disappoint the skipper as they plundered a mammoth total of 178 runs on the board at Queens Park Oval in Port-of-Spain on Sunday.

The team didn’t have the best of starts when Robin Peterson arm’s ball got better of his former South African team-mate and veteran Jacques Kallis in the 3^rd over of the match. Then the hero of the semi-final match Kamran Akmal came to the crease to partner C Delport. Although, the duo of Akmal and Delport started off slowly and cautiously but they changed their gears in the 7^th over as Akmal hammered two boundaries off Nurse.

In the middle overs, both the batters were dropped as well but the duo showed no mercy as they got boundaries on regular intervals. Then, the skipper of Barbados Tridents Kieron Pollard joined the party as he got rid of Delport and then Akmal off successive deliveries, but the T&T side had already forged ahead as the duo of Akmal (60) and Delport (50) had combined for a match winning partnership of 102 runs for the 2^nd wicket. Then, the Bravo brothers unleashed their belligerent colours as they combined for a 16 ball 40 runs partnership. Dwayne Bravo slaughtered an unbeaten knock of 29 runs in 15 balls at a strike rate of 193.

Chasing 179 runs in a final match is never meant to be easy but when you have guys like Dwayne Smith, Keiron Pollard and Misbah-Ul-Haq in the batting line-up, then nothing seems improbable. Dwayne Smith and Steven Taylor started off briskly as the former hammered 5 boundaries till the end of 3 overs. Johan Botha drew the first blood for the T&T side as he got rid of the dangerous looking Taylor in the 5^th over. But, it didn’t have any effect on Smith as he smashed Botha for couple of boundaries in the same over. Smith seemed like a man on mission but from the other end, Corbin kept piling pressure on his team as by the 9^th over, he had scored only 7 runs in 15 balls. In quest to get some big runs Smith dragged Benn’s short of length delivery on his off-stump.

After that the match turned in favor of T&T side as Corbin and Misbah departed without inflicting any damage on the bowlers. Now, the onus was on Pollard as in the last 5 overs Tridents required further 59 runs. But, even the mighty Pollard couldn’t whisper any magic as Cooper and Bravo proved too difficult to score that many runs in the slog overs of the final match. The Barbados Tridents missed their key player Shoaib Malik very badly who was on national duty. Malik was the man who did the job of holding the team in the middle overs before launching barrage of aggressive strokes in the slog overs.

Kamran Akmal won the man-of-the match award for his brilliant knock of 60 runs. The trio of Benn, Cooper and Davis combined for 64 runs in 11 overs and picked up 3 wickets. In this way, the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel clinched their first ever title victory in the biggest league of the Caribbean country.

Brief Scores of CPL 2015 Final:

Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel– 178 for 5 (Akmal 60, Delport 50) win by 20 runs

Barbados Tridents– 158 for 4 (Smith 49) by 20 runs