Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) continued their magnificent run at the 2020 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with a resounding nine-wicket victory over the St Kitts/Nevis Patriots in their final preliminary round match at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, San Fernando on Sunday, making it 10 straight wins.
SCORES: St Kitts/Nevis Patriots 77 all out (18.2) vs TKR 78/1 (11.3) - TKR won by nine wickets.
A brilliant performance by the Knight Riders' bowlers on a track that held no terrors saw them rout the Patriots for just 77 runs with 10 balls to spare in the innings.
Opener Tion Webster than banged an unbeaten 41 to rush the home franchise to victory at 78/1 off 11.3 overs. Webster and Amir Jangoo getting his second game batted well to add 54 runs from eight overs at the start of the chase. When Jangoo fell for a 24-ball 19, the chase was nearly formalised.
Webster ended up facing 33 balls, striking a six and five fours. When victory came, he had as a company the New Zealander Tim Seifert who closed on 16 not out off 12 balls with a six.
Earlier, the Patriots won the toss and were served a diet of slow bowling by TKR skipper Kieron Pollard. With the big hitters, Evin Lewis and Chris Lynn at the top, Pollard opened with Akeal Hosein and Sikandar Raza.
Not giving the openers pace to work with, they grew frustrated and gave away their hand. After these two spinners were done, Pollard unleashed his leg-spinning twins in Fawad Ahmed and the 48-year-old Praveen Tambe. They proceed to wreck the middle and lower order, with Fawad ending with 4/21. Tambe was also brilliant giving away only nine runs from his allotted four overs and taking one wicket.
Pace was introduced in the 13th over through the fit-again Ali Khan and he produced a wicket immediately. So too did his fellow pacer Anderson Phillip who took the final wicket. An efficient bowling performance even without the likes of Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo, and Khary Pierre who were rested.
The TKR will battle the Jamaica Tallawahs next in their semi-final clash on Tuesday at the BLCA from 10 am, while the Guyana Amazon Warriors play the St Lucia Zouks at 5.30 pm. The winners will meet in the final on Thursday at the same venue from 10 am.
Man of the match Ahmed speaking after the game said: "Mixed form for me - but in this game, I've come well and it's a really good sign for me. Taking wickets gives you a lot of confidence, especially going into the semi-finals. To win 10 out of 10, it's an amazing team performance. You can tell we have a lot of different match-winners in the team. That's the secret to our performance, a lot of players are performing well, three-four bowlers, four-five batsmen. We are missing two of our players (Colin) Munro and Sunil (Narine), hopefully, Sunil will be fit for the semi-final."
SCORES:
St Kitts/Nevis Patriots 77 all out (18.2) (Denesh Ramdin 19, Rayad Emrit 15, Fawad Ahmed 4/21, Akeal Hosein 2/26, Praveen Tambe 1/9) vs TKR 78/1 (11.3) (Tion Webster 41 no, Amir Jangoo 19, Tim Seifert 16 no) - TKR won by 9 wkts.
Man of the match: Fawad Ahmed