CLT20: Trinidad and Tobago ease past Chennai Super Kings to top the group

Lendl Simmons scored 63 runs and picked up two valuable wickets to book T&T a spot in the semi-finals

Chasing 119 runs to win the match and seal their spot in the semi-finals of the Champions League T20, Trinidad and Tobago eased their way past Chennai Super kings with a eight-wicket win at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in Delhi.

Openers Lendl Simmons and Evin Lewis got their team off to a steady start scoring 45 runs in the first six overs. Despite the fall of Lewis, lbw to Suresh Raina for a 35-ball 38 in the 11th over of the innings with the score at 79, Simmons’ aggressive half-century (63 off 41) made sure that T&T not only booked their place in the knockout rounds but also did it in style by topping the group.

Simmons eventually holed out at deep midwicket to a half-tracker from Ravichandran Ashwin but only after sealing the fate of the match. Darren Bravo and Yannick Ottley completed the chase in 15.1 overs. This victory of T&T also brought the curtains down on Titans’ CLT20 campaign.

Earlier in the evening, batting first, Chennai Super Kings were off to a very good start despite the loss of Michael Hussey early into the innings, bowled by an inswinger from Ravi Rampaul. Suresh Raina, taking the attack to the opposition right from the word go, propelled his team to a score of 49/1 at the end of six overs.

Vijay, unable to make use of an early reprieve- a close lbw call against Badree was turned down, dragged Lendl Simmons’ harmless delivery outside off onto the stumps. That wicket of Vijay sparked an astonishing collapse as the famed CSK batting line-up fell like a pack of cards.

The batsmen had themselves to blame as almost all the deliveries that picked up the wickets looked innocuous. With the scoreboard reading 102/5 at the end of 16.4 overs, MS Dhoni, who had quietly moved on to 25 off 24 deliveries, holed out at long-on as his team folded up for 118/10 in 19.4 overs.

All the pressure that was build up by Sunil Narine with a spell of 4-0-12-0 was completely utilised by his team as Rayad Emrit (3), Ravi Rampaul (2) and Lendl Simmons (2) kept plugging away wickets from the other end. Raina top scored for CSK with a 29-ball 38.