Thaindian News

Chennai, Sep 27 (IANS) New South Wales Blues fancy their chances against Trinidad and Tobago when the teams clash here Wednesday in the Champions League T20 tournament, going by Aussie team’s all-rounder Steven Smith’s statement.

His theory was based on the fact that the West Indian outfit, besides missing Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo, both of whom have opted for their IPL franchises, the Blues, having played their opening fixture at Chepauk are better acclimatised to the local conditions.

“Obviously, Pollard and Bravo are very good players. So that is only going to help us. But we worry only about our own game and we will give it our best tomorrow,” Smith said at a Media conference here Tuesday.

“We came a couple of days earlier to acclimatise to the conditions and the pitch is pretty similar to the one we are using at the nets. So the boys are getting used to the conditions and we are all ready for what T and T may bring to the party,” said Smith.

For all his assertions, the Blues middle-order batting lacked character and it resulted in them putting up just 135 on the board against the Cobras who then cruised to victory without much ado.

“I thought the ball got soft pretty early the other day and definitely boundaries are the way to go with the newer ball. It is probably the best time to bat. Later on, it was quite hard to find the boundary and the Cobras bowled well,” he said.

Smith did not discount the possibility of veteran Stuart Clark being included in place of either Mitchell Star or Pat Cummins in a bid to inject some experience into the bowling attack.

“He is a very experienced bowler and has played a lot of cricket. He was a good part of our (successful) campaign in 2009 where he played a pretty key role. I am sure that if the selectors see it fit to bring him back in, they will do so,” Smith said.

Meanwhile, T&T; wicket-keeper Denesh Ramdin asserted that his team would be competitive and confident going into Wednesday’s game.

“The wicket looks a bit slow and should probably aid our slow bowlers. Hopefully, we can shoot them out for about 130 or 140 runs and then chase it down,” said Ramdin while admitting that they misread the pitch at Bangalore where Monday night, they were shot out for 98 and Mumbai Indians achieved the target off the last ball with a wicket to spare.

“We misread the pitch in Bangalore and it was bad that we didn’t score runs. (Lendl) Simmons’ run out was unfortunate and consequently we kept losing wickets. We fought, but couldn’t pull off victory.

“Against Blues, it is a different attack, different surface, different game as well. So I hope the boys pick themselves up,” said Ramdin who fluffed a run out that allowed Mumbai to take the winning run.