For Darren Bravo, cricket runs in his blood. First cousin of Brain Lara, the young Bravo had moulded himself on the West Indies great.
Turning into a virtual copy, Bravo's batting includes all the nuances associated with Lara - from a high back lift to a little flourish before the ball is delivered, but somehow the left-handed batsman has failed to match Lara's exploits.
On Tuesday, opening for Trinidad and Tobago, he gave a glimpse of the huge but still unrealised potential, blasting the Sunrisers Hyderabad attack with utter disdain. His 66 off 44 balls was the highlight of the match.
Blistering knock
Once he got set nothing was beyond his arc and Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra both bore the brunt of the marauding Caribbean.
After a quite start, Bravo opened up, carting Ishant for a six over long-on. Off the 18 balls Ishant sent down to Bravo, the Trinidadian scored 33 runs including two sixes and four boundaries. Mishra, Hyderabad's best bowler in the qualifiers, too was also not spared with Bravo hitting two sixes and raising his fifty off just 37 balls.
Sunrisers had started well after skipper Shikhar Dhawan opted to chase, playing to his team's strength. If the combination of Morne Morkel, Marchant de Lange and Rowan Richards of Titans had not sedated the crowd's hunger for speed in the previous game, South Africa pace battery's spearhead, Dale Steyn, was bang on target, taking a wicket off the first ball of the match.
{{/usCountry}}Sunrisers had started well after skipper Shikhar Dhawan opted to chase, playing to his team's strength. If the combination of Morne Morkel, Marchant de Lange and Rowan Richards of Titans had not sedated the crowd's hunger for speed in the previous game, South Africa pace battery's spearhead, Dale Steyn, was bang on target, taking a wicket off the first ball of the match.
{{/usCountry}}But T&T hung in there despite a barrage from Ishant and Steyn, who used the bounce the green wicket provided to good affect. The subdued start soon turned into a torrent of runs as Bravo started his plunder.
With little cameos from Evin Lewis (22) and Jason Mohammed (19), Trinidad and Tobago raised a fighting total of 160.
Everything for the Sunrisers hinged on another southpaw, Dhawan - going through a purple patch. He along with Parthiv Patel set out on the chase in right earnest, adding 35 for the first wicket.
Patel was lucky to get a reprieve off the first ball when he was dropped at third man off Ravi Rampaul. But T&T struck in quick succession to remove both Patel and Dhawan in the space of 10 runs to make it an uphill task for the Sunrisers.