Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel Beat Barbados to Clinch Maiden Caribbean Premier League Cricket Title

Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel beat Barbados Tridents to clinch their maiden Caribbean Premier League T20 cricket title on Sunday. Pakistan discard Kamran Akmal played a stellar role and was well supported by South African Cameron Delport as Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel won by 20 runs in the final match in Port-of-Spain. Both Akmal and Delport scored fifties.

Akmal and Delport came good after veteran South African star Jacques Kallis was bowled by Robin Peterson for 8 in the third over. Both batsmen rode chances and put together a valuable 102-run second wicket partnership as Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel scored 178 for five in their 20 overs. Akmal and Delport fell off successive balls in the 16th over but skipper Dwayne Bravo smashed a 15-ball 29 in the slog overs.

Kieron Pollard and 34-year-old West Indian all-rounder Rayad Emrit picked up two wickets apiece for Barbados Tridents after Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel chose to bat first after winning the toss.

Dwayne Smith and 21-year-old American opener Steven Taylor gave defending champions Barbados a good start. Scoring at over 10 an over, Barbados looked hot in pursuit but then started losing wickets at regular intervals. Smith was out for 49 off 30 balls (top scorer) as Bravo employed his spinners to check the run-rate. Five batsmen scored 20s and that included Pakistan Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq, Pollard and West Indies Test captain Jason Holder.

Sulieman Benn took 2 for 24 in his four overs while Johan Botha and Trinidadian Derone David took a wicket each as Barbados ran out of overs. Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel's Akmal and Bravo finished as the Man of the Match and Man of the Series, respectively.