The Bar­ba­dos Roy­als limped to the knock­out stage of the Caribbean Pre­mier League in wor­ry­ing fash­ion with a fourth con­sec­u­tive loss to the Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers (TKR) at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my in Tarou­ba, San Fern­nafo on Fri­day night.

The Knight Rid­ers’ 30-run vic­to­ry was set up by cameos from cap­tain Kieron Pol­lard, who made 42 and the ex­plo­sive An­dre Rus­sell who mus­cled his way to 31 from just 12 balls, to help them post a chal­leng­ing 175 for sev­en from their 20 overs.

Play­er-of-the-Match Akeal Ho­sein then ran through the Roy­als’ top or­der, as the vis­i­tors pro­duced an­oth­er lack­lus­tre bat­ting per­for­mance to fin­ish on 145 for nine.

The re­sult was nev­er in doubt af­ter left-arm spin­ner Ho­sein crip­pled the Roy­als’ run chase by snag­ging the first three wick­ets.

He first en­ticed Kadeem Al­leyne to push a de­liv­ery straight in­to the hands of Ja­son Roy at cov­er af­ter mak­ing just two, be­fore grab­bing the im­por­tant wick­et of the in-form Quin­to de Kock for eight, caught on the bound­ary try­ing to hit him out the ground, to leave the Roy­als 13 for two.

Kevin Wick­ham and Al­ick Athanaze stemmed the flow of wick­ets in a 53-run part­ner­ship for the sec­ond wick­et that brought some sta­bil­i­ty to the in­nings.

But just as it looked as though the pair was about to ac­cel­er­ate, Wick­ham gift­ed Ho­sein a sim­ple re­turn catch to be out for a run-a-ball 23.

Athanaze looked set to reach his half cen­tu­ry, un­til he reached 44 and pulled a short de­liv­ery from pac­er Chris Jor­dan straight down the throat of Roy sta­tioned at deep mid­wick­et; the score now 85 for four in the 13th over.

And when David Miller’s coun­ter­at­tack­ing in­nings of 30 from 15 balls, in­clu­sive of three six­es and two fours, came to an end when he was out­foxed by spin­ner Waqar Salamkheil to make it 117 for five, the Roy­als’ run chase floun­dered.

Skip­per Rov­man Pow­ell scored a pedes­tri­an 18 runs from 21 balls, but no oth­er Roy­als bats­man scored in dou­ble dig­its as Jor­dan and Ter­rance Hinds ran through the low­er or­der.

Ho­sein end­ed with 3-15 from his four overs, Jor­dan took 3-33 and Hinds 2-22.

Ear­li­er, the Knight Rid­ers re­cov­ered from los­ing Roy to the third ball of the in­nings, thanks to sol­id con­tri­bu­tions from their mid­dle or­der.

They were in a spot of both­er at 35 for three af­ter Naveen-ul-Haq and Ja­son Hold­er struck to get rid of Nicholas Pooran (27) and Shaqkere Par­ris for five re­spec­tive­ly.

How­ev­er, Kea­cy Car­ty, who made 32, along with Pol­lard and Rus­sell came to their side’s res­cue.

Car­ty and Pol­lard frus­trat­ed the Roy­als in a 70-run part­ner­ship for the fourth wick­et that took them past the 100 mark.

Car­ty be­came ul-Haq’s sec­ond wick­et and Pol­lard was dis­missed by Ma­heesh Theek­shana, paving the way for Rus­sell to bol­ster the back end of the in­nings with some su­perb hit­ting.

He hit Theek­shana for a four and six off con­sec­u­tive balls in the 15th over and in the en­su­ing over, he twice hit Ja­son Hold­er out of the ground.

Rus­sell hit Theek­shana for an­oth­er six off the penul­ti­mate ball of the 17th over, but the spin­ner got his re­venge the very next ball when he had him caught at back­ward point.

Tailen­ders Jor­dan and Hinds then cracked 21 runs from the last two overs to help the Knight Rid­ers fin­ish in style.

Theek­shana and ul-Haq both end­ed with 3-35 from their four overs for the Roy­als.

SUM­MARISE SCORES

TRIN­BA­GO KNIGHT RID­ERS 175-7 in 20 overs (Kieron Pol­lard 42, Kea­cy Car­ty 32, An­dre Rus­sell 31, Nicholas Pooran 27, Chris Jor­dan 13 not out; Naveen-ul-Haq 3-35, Ma­heesh Theek­shana 3-35) vs BAR­BA­DOS ROY­ALS 145-9 in 20 overs (Al­ick Athanaze 44, David Miller 30, Kevin Wick­ham 23, Rov­man Pow­ell 18; Akeal Ho­sein 3-15, Chris Jor­dan 3-33, Ter­rance Hinds 2-22).

(CMC)