Dwayne Bravo is an entertainer to his heart, and although he was left out of the West Indies World Cup squad, he did not let that get him down as he saluted the fans following the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force’s 135-run win over Guyana Jaguars in the Nagico Super50 final at Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain on Sunday night.
It was a special victory for Bravo who was the T&T skipper last year when they fell to the Barbados Pride in the final at the same venue.
The energetic all-rounder also played a part in the win, taking a spectacular one-handed return catch to dismiss Guyana wicket-keeper Anthony Bramble to finish with two for 29.
The medium pacer was third on the list of top bowlers with nine wickets in four matches while Guyana’s left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul was second with 11 from five matches and T&T’s Sunil Narine was at the top with 12 from five games.
Bravo was also T&T’s third highest run-scorer with 86 runs behind Jason Mohammed (209) and Darren Bravo (109).
“Obviously coming into this tournament, there were a lot of emotions flying around and a lot of negatives and stuff but we used it to drive us and I am happy to be part of a winning group,” Bravo said after the win.
“We always feel happy and proud to represent our country and the fans came out to support us from the first game. This is for the people and I am very happy,” he added.
He also congratulated Rayad Emrit for leading the team to victory saying: “It was a great team effort. It has been a while since we have won a tournament and I feel very happy to be a part of it.”
Speaking about the game he said Mohammed’s knock and Narine’s best figures for six for nine were the reasons for their victory.
“You would be worried (when you are 148 for eight) and you will have doubts in your mind but if you look at the scores in the tournament, the conditions were not good for batting and the pitch assisted the bowlers a lot,” he explained.
“Guyana are a good team but to get to 200, I think Jason Mohammed’s innings was brilliant and it is the reason we are celebrating now because of the way he batted.
“Sunil Narine came up trumps defending a small total…Our strength is defending small totals, so it does not matter how much runs we have on the board, we have that self-belief that we can defend any total despite the opposition batting line-up, so it was a good team effort and great self-belief in each other and we are really happy,” he added.