Bravo: We’re still the best team

TRINBAGO Knight Riders captain Dwayne Bravo is remaining calm despite seeing his team decimated by the fury of Andre Russell’s bat on Friday in their second match of the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) at the Queen’s Park Oval, St Clair.

Friday’s surprising defeat saw the Knight Riders slip to 1-1 ahead of last night’s match against last year’s finalists St Kitts and Nevis Patriots.

Bravo’s team leave TT to play four away games before returning to Trinidad for their last two home matches on September 5. The veteran T20 all-rounder said there was no need for his team to feel nervous as history is on their side. He boasted that the Knight Riders still possess the best team on paper and believes they will retain the CPL title.

“No pressure. Last year was the same thing, we win the first, lost the second and win the title, so there is no pressure. It’s still early days. We have a very good team; I still believe we have the best team in the tournament but it’s too early to talk about pressure,” he said.

Bravo said losing to Jamaica should act as a wake-up call that they need to work harder.

“I’m happy that we lose so we know we can be beaten. It makes no sense turning up game after game and just beating teams...It’s good to lose cricket games at times and when you get beaten by a performance like that you say ‘well played.’”

Bravo admitted it was tough out in the middle as captain trying to stop Russell who was on the rampage with 13 monstrous sixes on his way to the fastest ever CPL hundred off 40 balls to successfully chase the highest ever CPL score of 223 for six.

“It’s challenging but it’s a good test of character. I tried everything, I rotate my bowlers, we come up with different plans and he counteracted each plan. It’s not every day you see someone hit Sunil Narine like Russell did. It’s a very good wicket, I think the fans got a very good game, it’s over 400 runs scored tonight and I’m still happy. I’m happy Russell make runs..the way he played, he deserved to be on the winning side, getting a hat-trick and scoring a hundred. It proved why he’s the best player in the world in this format and hats off to him.”

Bravo denied his players came out the dressing room at half-time overconfident, preferring to give Russell the credit for a match-winning display.

“Obviously we knew the game wasn’t finished. We know Tallawahs have a player like Russell who a couple years ago did the same thing against us, so we never thought at the halfway stage we win the game. The bowlers, all of us tried, we missed our length at times but we paid the penalty because we got beat by a world class player. There is no need to drop our heads, we had a good game despite we lost,” he declared.