Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) tasted their first victory in this CPL season after defeating St Kitts and Nevis Patriots (SNP) by 6 wickets. SNP made 178/5 in 20 overs which TKR chased down in 17.1 overs and made 180/4.
Kieron Pollard won the toss and he opted to bowl first.
The openers of Patriots started well and put 43 runs for the first wicket. But DJ Bravo double strike in 5th over makes it worse for the opponent. Lewis again fails to get a good start and out cheaply on 10 runs. Andre Fletcher played some good shots but he wasn’t able to convert his innings to a big one. He makes 32 runs in 17 balls for which he hits 3 fours and 3 sixes.
As Patriots were looking in danger and then the Captain himself took the charge and played a destructive innings of 62 runs in 38 balls including 4 fours and 5 sixes. Sherfane Rutherford was the highest scorer of the match also. He was well supported by Corbin Bosch in the death overs. Bosch scored 30 runs in 21 balls. At the end SNP managed to get 178 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs.
Sunil Narine again shows his skills and experience to stop the Patriots batting lineup. He took 3 wickets and gave only 24 runs in his 4 overs spell. DJ Bravo took 2 wickets.
Knight Riders didn’t get a great start as they wanted and lost both of their openers in a span of 32 runs. Martin Guptill (7 runs) and Chadwick Walton (6 runs) out cheaply. But when a team has hard hitters like Pooran, Pollard and Russell then the opposition bowlers must be feeling scared to bowl in front of these ruthless hitters. And this time this trio proves it.
Nicholas Pooran who is good in extreme forms during the past 3-4 months, is unstoppable. He scored 61 runs for which he took only 32 balls. In his innings he hits 5 fours and 4 sixes. Lorcan Tucker (36 runs) supported him well. And then the two giants from the Caribbean Pollard and Russell make the target easy with their power hitting. Pollard made 37 runs in 16 balls and hit 5 gigantic sixes. Russell on the other hand scored 23 runs in just 8 balls which includes 2 fours and 2 sixes. These two chased down the target before 17 balls and won the match by 6 wickets.
Corbin Bosch was the only bowler who was treated little softly and got 3 important wickets. Blessing Muzarabani gets the Walton wicket. All the bowlers except Bosch were having the economy more than or equal to 9.
With this win Knight Riders climbed to 4th spot in the points table with 3 points in 3 matches. They lost their last match against St Lucia Kings (SLK) thanks to a superb all round performance by Sikander Raza. Whereas SNP is still searching for their first victory in the CPL. They lost 4 matches in 6 games and 2 of them were washed off due to rain. Presently they are at the bottom of the table with 2 points. They lost their last match against Barbados Royals (BR) by some super hammering from Rovman Powell.
Nicholas Pooran, TKR, Player of the Match
“Just happy that we got 2 points tonight, that’s very important. Lots of chat in the dressing room about our plans and good to put those words into action. I try to be as consistent as I can be whichever franchise I represent. Tucker is very talented and very excited. Happy that he got the opportunity here. He is approaching 65 but he is playing 29, he is amazing. He is a legend and teaches the youngsters how to play the game. The crowd support is great here.”
Sherfane Rutherford, SNP Captain
“For me it was satisfying (about his innings), I wanted to take the game deep. I did it well but we were certainly short of a few runs. Another loss, we gotta regroup and come back better. We lost wickets at crucial intervals. It was a good wicket and the guys need to look in the mirror and try and see what we can correct.
Coming against a team that has a lot of power, you can miss your margin as a bowler. We have a few experienced guys in the team and we still have a few games to hopefully turn it around.”
Kieron Pollard, TKR Captain
“Very satisfying. The guys bowled well up until the 17th over. We just continue to play cricket as we know. We just gonna do what we are told, try to play to the best of our ability. The way we approached the chase, Pooran-Tucker partnership and we spoke about how we want to play the innings in two halves. We also talked about finishing games and Russell and I were there in the end to see it off.
It’s about understanding and knowing when to pull the trigger. We have been preparing very well and we speak about how we want to play and came out with a different attitude today after the loss yesterday.”