Trinidad & Tobago captain Darren Ganga, on Wednesday, defended his decision to use Ravi Rampaul in the Super Over in their Champions League T20 clash against New South Wales Blues, in Chennai, saying the later has been their best bowler at the death overs.
Rampaul, who gave away 16 runs in the 20th over that allowed NSW to level the scores, conceded another 18 in the Super Over, which the T&T failed to overhaul.
"Ravi is the most experienced bowler, he's been our best bowler so far in this tournament, the most in-form. Every time he's bowled at the death for us, he's done the job for us. We've trained and drilled ourselves in a certain way, to finish off the innings in a certain manner. If we give Ravi 15 or 16 runs to defend, he'll do that on any given day," Ganga said after the defeat.
Rampaul persisted with bowling around the wicket despite going for runs in the 20th over, but his captain defended the move.
"We've tried it time and time again, to bowl around the wicket to most of the batsmen, angling the ball across, the field positions... more often than not we get out of jail. (But) Ravi was a little bit tired, probably having bowled two overs back to back and then with that intensity coming back to bowl the Super Over.
"In hindsight you can say a lot of things, but he's our most experienced bowler," he said.
Ganga said he would've preferred to go with a right-left combination in the Super Over but the team had to name prior to the match its three preferred batsmen for such a scenario.
"We were under the impression that we had the option of using any (of the) three to open, but that's something we learned about just prior to start of the game.
"(As if) the Gods are against us. We've had two very close games; it just shows how competitive we are. It's a pity we haven't crossed the line and secure a win. We still hold our belief. This group is still open and we'll be coming very, very hard in that game against CSK.
