An innings of 59 from Nicholas Pooran and four wickets from Sunil Narine was enough to keep the Trinbago Knight Riders slim qualification hopes alive with a 35 run victory over the Barbados Tridents in the Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
Pooran was 1 off 10 balls and 9 from 14 before a trio of sixes off the bowling of Mujeeb ur Rahmann got his innings going. That acceleration saw him reach his fifty from just 35 balls as he batted brilliantly against a Tridents attack that struggled to contain him.
In reply the Tridents could not get on top of the hugely experienced Knight Riders spin bowlers who wrought havoc in the opening exchanges of the chase. Narine claimed three wickets inside the PowerPlay with him dismissing both Quinton de Kock and Rivaldo Clarke for ducks.
The Tridents never got over the loss of early wickets and ended up losing in their first home game of the season.
The Tridents bowlers were excellent in the opening exchanges with Chris Green sending down his four overs on the bounce to record figures of 0/17. Pooran was patient in the face of this tight bowling as he and Colin Munro put on a stand of 68, by far the highest of the match.
The Tridents had their chance to dismiss Pooran when he was dropped on 35 off the bowling of debutant Jakeem Pollard and that spilled chance allowed the batter to put his team in a strong position for the death overs.
The Knight Riders didn’t really seize that opportunity with no boundaries coming off the last five overs and at the halfway stage in felt that the Tridents were in control despite Pooran’s brilliance.
When the Tridents innings got underway the wickets kept falling with Narine, Goolie and Akeal Hosein all picking up victims in the opening exchanges. By the time Green was dismissed by Hosein the Tridents were 50/5 and needed a lot of help.
Some lusty blows from Daniel Sams kept the home crowd’s hopes alive for a while but in the end the web spun by the Knight Riders attack was too much for them to overcome.
It was left to Sherfane Rutherford to keep the Tridents’ hopes alive as he looked to bat with the lower order to get his team off to a winning start at the beginning of their home leg. When he fell for 21 trying to him Lahiru Kumara out of Kensington Oval the game was all but over.
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