Trinidad And Tobago V Ruhuna Champions League T20 Preview And Live Timings

The first game of the Champions League T20 will be a qualifier between Trinidad and Tobago and Ruhuna Rhinos to be played at Hyderabad.

Venue: Uppal, Hyderabad

Date: September 19, 2011

Time: 1600 hours local time, 1030 hours GMT onwards

The Trinidad and Tobago v Ruhuna Champions League T20 match will be shown live on Star Cricket in India.

How the teams got here/Previous Results:

Trinidad and Tobago have played in the first edition of the Champions League, and were the winners of the Caribbean T20 tournament, beating Hampshire in the final. Guyana, who had made it through to the CLT20 last year, were knocked out before they got to the semi-finals, winning only two games in the league stage, while Trinidad and Tobago qualified without a loss.

Ruhuna were surprising champions of the hastily organised Sri Lankan inter-provincial t20 tournament, but not before they had to beat the many-times over champions Wayamba in the final which went down to the Super Over.

Key Players:

Lendl Simmons has been one of the upcoming stars for the West Indian side and Trinidad and Tobago will benefit greatly from his success. He top-scored for his first class side in the domestic T20 tournament and together with Darren Bravo – another classy left-hander – will be the player to look out for.

For Ruhuna, there are two who will have much to prove; Dinesh Chandimal, who was dropped from the Sri Lankan side despite some good performances and Sanath Jayasuriya, who at 42 will be the oldest player in the tournament!

And they will miss...

Ruhuna will be without Suraj Randiv, who has been forced to play the Chennai Super Kings. Randiv’s ability to get the extra bounce to go with his spinning capabilities would have been a huge plus for Ruhuna.

The bigger loss for the Trinidad and Tobago side will be the absence of Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo, both of whom have had to play for their respective IPL sides. And before you go blaming them, their contracts with the IPL were framed in this way.

Oh well, but you can always counter that they signed it anyway!

Either way, TT will have problems without the presence of two of their best all-rounders.

Prediction:

Umm, a lot will depend on the pitch. If the Uppal track behaves like it always does – easy to bat, no help for the bowlers – then, the Trinidad and Tobago side, with their superior batting could go through. If the Sri Lankan team can get even a little sub-continental out of the pitch, my money would be on them.

For the rest of the schedule, format and timings for the Champions League T20, 2011, click here.