GROS ISLET, St Lu­cia – Bar­ba­dos Roy­als marched to their third straight win to re­main un­beat­en in the men’s Caribbean Pre­mier League, af­ter half-cen­turies from David Miller and Kyle May­ers laid the foun­da­tion for the re­sult be­fore rain end­ed the con­test abrupt­ly with Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers on the ropes.

Asked to bat in the first game of the St Lu­cia leg of the tour­na­ment at the Daren Sam­my Crick­et Ground, yes­ter­day, cap­tain Miller lashed 60 from 36 balls and the ir­re­press­ible May­ers 52 from 33 de­liv­er­ies, as Roy­als reached 194 for four off their 20 overs.

In re­ply, part-time off-spin­ner De­von Thomas (2-4) grabbed a cou­ple of wick­ets in his on­ly over while seam­ers Obed Mc­Coy (2-11) and Os­hane Thomas (2-18) added braces, to send TKR tum­bling to 51 for sev­en from eight overs.

Rain, which had ear­li­er forced a 20-minute break in the in­nings, then re­turned to end the game pre­ma­ture­ly, hand­ing Roy­als a con­vinc­ing 80-run win un­der Duck­worth-Lewis-Stern.

Roy­als are now one of two un­beat­en teams in the com­pe­ti­tion, the oth­er be­ing Ja­maica Tallawahs who have played a game less.

Left-han­der May­ers ex­tend­ed his rich vein of form, punch­ing five fours and four six­es to post his sec­ond half-cen­tu­ry in three out­ings, as he put on 85 for the first wick­et with Quin­ton de Kock who made 44 from 34 de­liv­er­ies with a half-dozen fours.

When May­ers de­part­ed to a catch at point off An­dre Rus­sell in the 10th over, de Kock added a fur­ther 35 for the sec­ond wick­et with fel­low South African Miller, who gave the back end of the in­nings im­pe­tus by in­spir­ing a 58-run, third-wick­et stand with Azam Khan (18).

Left-han­der Miller belt­ed five fours and two six­es be­fore per­ish­ing at the end of the penul­ti­mate over, sky­ing a Ravi Ram­paul full toss to mid-wick­et.

TKR strug­gled from the out­set, with Sunil Nar­ine (7) los­ing his mid­dle stump to Thomas at the start of the sec­ond over and Col­in Munro (12) top-edg­ing seam­er Ja­son Hold­er to the wick­et­keep­er in the next over.

Open­er Tion Web­ster (7) holed out to point off Mc­Coy’s first de­liv­ery in the fourth over at 27 for three but it was Thomas who broke the back­bone of the TKR bat­ting, re­mov­ing Tim Seifert (1) and cap­tain Kieron Pol­lard (1) to catch­es at the wick­et in the fifth over.

CMC

Brief Scores

ROY­ALS 194 for four off 20 overs (David Miller 60, Kyle May­ers 52, Quin­ton de Kock 44) vs TKR 51 for sev­en off eight overs (De­von Thomas 2-4, Obed Mc­Coy 2-11, Os­hane Thomas 2-18).

Bar­ba­dos Roy­als won by 80 runs un­der Duck­worth-Lewis-Stern.