Ever heard of the old adage, ‘it aint over till the fat lady sings’? Well T&T and in particular, all rounder Keiron Pollard proved that right on Friday night, against the New South Wales Blues and in the process, booked a place in the semifinals of the IPL Champions League tournament.

Pollard batted like a man possessed, to take his country to victory with an 18-ball 54 not out, at the Rajiv Ghandi International Cricket ground in Upal, Hyderabad. Set a winning target of 171 runs in 20 overs, after Aussie young guns Phillip Hughes (83) and David Warner (63) clobbered the T&T bowling, this country was looking down the barrel of a gun, when Pollard walked to the crease. T&T had slipped to 118/6 off 15.2 overs and it looked as it was only a matter of time before the game was over, in the Australians favour. Enter Pollard and the complexion of the game totally changed. He smashed the bowling of Aussie Test trio Brett Lee, Doug Bollinger and Stuart Clark to all parts of the huge ground, much to the delight of the ‘Trini Champions Posse,’ as they are being called in India. When Pollard took his guard, 53 runs were needed off 28 balls. It looked like curtains for the Caribbean men but their handful of fans kept shouting and rallying behind the boys. With every ball that flew out of the ground their shouting became louder and at this point, the Indian fans joined in and started to call on Pollard for sixes.

The burly Pollard answered their call and sent a total off five sixes sailing out of the ground and also struck five fours. In partnership with Sherwin Ganga (four not out), Pollard won the match with nine balls to spare. Their partnership was worth 53 runs off 19 balls. Prior to Pollard’s entry, a comedy of errors led to three run outs in the T&T innings and skipper Daren Ganga (32), Darren Bravo (27) and Denesh Ramdin (23) all had their innings cut short after getting starts. William Perkins led the charge by showing Lee no respect in carving out 16 from 13 balls at the top of the order. Earlier, Warner and Hughes set a tournament record by putting together the highest partnership of the Champions League. They posted 121 runs for the first wicket off 15.2 overs, beating the previous mark of 81 set by Wayamba’s HG Kulatunga and Michael Vandort against Victoria.

The duo was brutal on anything off line and punished all the bowlers with the exception of Sherwin Ganga who bowled his four overs for just 17 runs. Dwayne Bravo came towards the end of the innings and grabbed three wickets in the final over to take his tally in the series to 10—the highest among all bowlers. T&T skipper Daren Ganga said this victory was for the people of Trinidad and Tobago and the West Indies. “I am sure with this victory it is a carnival affair at home and I would like to tell the people of Trinidad and Tobago and the West Indies this victory was for them.” Ganga continued: “I am very happy with the way the boys are fighting and I must congratulated Pollard. We know what he is capable off and he came through for us today. As the tournament progresses we will see a lot more guys coming through with great performances.” T&T’s next match is against Diamond Eagles at Hyderabad on Sunday.