Martin Guptill’s unbeaten knock helped Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) to post 194/5 in 20 overs. Barbados Royals (BR) only scored 61/10 in 12.1 overs and got a crushing defeat of 133 runs.
It was Knight Riders back to back win in CPL. Their first win was against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots (SNP) and that was also one sided domination by them and won the match by 6 wickets. While Royals in their last match showed their dominance also against SNP and won the match by 6 wickets.
Firstly Royals captain Powell won the toss and told the visitors to bat.
The decision made by Royals Captain backfires, as Guptill shows no mercy on the bowlers. Martin in his unbeaten innings of 100 runs took just 58 balls. In his knock he hit only a single boundary while he hit 9 gigantic sixes. He was pretty well supported by the other opener, Mark Deyal (27 runs) due to which for the 1st wicket these two put up 41 runs.
After that Kieron Pollard again played a crucial innings of 46 runs for which he took 32 balls. In his knock it includes a single boundary and 4 sixes. Pollard and Guptill scored 108 runs for the 3rd wicket. Their innings give a huge momentum to the total total. As a result TKR scored 194 runs in 20 overs after losing 5 wickets.
Jason Holder got 2 wickets while Qais Ahmed and Van der Merwe got 1 wicket each.
Barbados showed their poor batting for the first time in this tournament. Only three batters – Jason Holder (14 runs), Rovman Powell (10 runs) and Qais Ahmed (10 runs) touched the double digit mark. Holder remains the highest scorer from his side. It was a pathetic batting show from the Royals. Both of their openers departed in the first over, Kyle Mayers and Rahkeem Cornwall didn’t score any single run and went for a duck by the very first ball they played.
Waqar Salamkheil showed his best performance in this tournament and grabbed 4 wickets with an economical spell. He gave only 14 runs in his 3.1 overs. Andre Russell fails to hit with the bat but he compensates through his bowling and clinches 3 important wickets. He was responsible for sending the Royals first three batters to the pavilion. Spinners Akeal Hosein and Sunil Narine got 2 and 1 wicket respectively.
With this win Knight Riders jumps to number 3 spot in the points with 5 points in 4 matches whereas Royals is at 5th spot in the points table with 3 points in 4 matches.
Martin Guptill, TKR, Player of the Match
“It was nice to spend some time out in the middle. Mark Deyal played some fantastic shots to get us off to a good start. We know we have a dangerous batting line up. Today we got it right. Polly had a slow start. He is impossible to stop when he gets going. We kept putting pressure. That’s going to help our run rate.”
Rovman Powell, BR Captain
“It wasn’t up to par, we played three games and in all three games we had to chase 190+. We need to go to better bowling plans. It just didn’t go according to plan, those things do happen. There was a lot of moisture around, so it was a good decision to bowl. Credit to Martin Guptill and Pollar and TKR, they batted pretty well on a good wicket.
The seniors have to stand up and score runs. The youngsters will contribute, but the senior guys have to score the 70s and 80s. All I ask of the boys is to improve. 10-15 % improvement tomorrow and that is good. The support today from the Bajas was fantastic, hopefully that continues for the rest of the games.”
Kieron Pollard, TKR Captain
“When we don’t deliver performances a lot of people are disappointed and there’s a lot of headlines going around. I must commend the guys the way we fought back in the last couple of games. Guptill was looking for some runs, struggling a bit. As a team, we are very happy that he was able to score runs a hundred this innings.
The situation, it’s something you have to respect. When I came in, Qais was bowling pretty well, he was spinning the ball from middle and leg, I just restrained myself. Martin kept taking the pressure off. It was a matter of me rotating the strike. When planning comes together, you feel happy. We decided to drop two of our main fast bowlers to play Waqar. He repaid the faith.
I understand how the pitch plays here. Being able to spin the ball both ways is always going to be a trump card for us in addition to Sunil Narine and Akeal Hossein. Thanks to the fans who travel and support TKR. They are our 12th man. For us it’s about enjoyment and entertaining.”