The Trinbago Knight Riders continued their winning streak at the Hero Caribbean Premier League even without some star players like Sunil Narine who was being rested and Colin Munro injured.
They turned in another superb all-round display to bowl out the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots inside 19 overs for a paltry 77 and chases down their modest target inside 12 overs. That completed a perfect 10 for 10 record in the league stage of Hero CPL. In the other match of the day, St. Lucia Zouks beat Jamaica Tallawahs by 11 runs.
As Patriots skipper Rayad Emrit decided to bat first Kieron Pollard had Akeal Hosein and Sikandar Raza open the bowling. Chris Lynn did hit Hosein for a six but two balls later he failed to clear deep midwicket and after three overs, the Patriots were 13 for 1. Bottled-up Evin Lewis faced 19 dot balls in his 24 ball innings and the Powerplay score 27 for 2 in six overs.
Ben Dunk too fell to a top-edge, Pravin Tambe taking an outstanding catch at short-third man off his fellow leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed. Tambe got a wicket of his own, trapping Joshua da Silva leg before and Fawad trapped the promoted Imran Khan in similar fashion for a duck. At halfway the Patriots were 36/5, and every over had been bowled by spinners.
Denesh Ramdin showed intent to hit smashing Fawad for a flat six but Patriots were losing wickets fast. After 14 they were 64 for six. Fawad picked up two wickets in his last over.
Patriots were 75/9 off 17 and they just passed the their lowest ever Hero CPL total of 75 in 2016. Phillips soon ended the innings out of its misery and it was the first innings in CPL history where a team did not hit a single four.
Chasing 78 for a win, Knight Riders’ Tion Webster hit two fours off Sheldon Cottrell in the first over of the chase. With Narine and Lendl Simmons rested, Amir Jangoo got another game and he did not allow many dot balls and gave strike to the fluent Webster, who hit Imran for two more fours to take the Knight Riders to 27/0 off four overs and then 42/0 off the Powerplay.
Webster helped Knight Riders past opening stand of pair 50 for the first wicket all season but Jangoo fell to Emrit next ball to end the stand at 54. Seifert joined Webster, and the Knight Riders coasted to 63/1 at halfway. Seifert finished the innings in style with a six.
As Knight Riders had a maximum 10 points from the League games, Patriots had just three.
Brief scores:
Trinbago Knight Riders 78/1 (Webster 41*, Jangoo 19, Seifert 16*; Emrit 1/14) beat St Kitts & Nevis Patriots 77 all out (Ramdin 19, Emrit 15, Lewis 12; Fawad 4/21, Hosein 2/25, Phillip 1/3, Raza 1/6, Tambe 1/9, Ali Khan 1/10) by 9 wickets
Player of the match : Fawad Ahmed
Zouks defend. Another modest total as league stage comes to an end
St. Lucia Zouks once again defended a modest total of 145 for six, as Jamaica Tallawahs from a solid 84 for no loss collapsed to 134 for nine and lost by 11 runs. The collapsed losing nine wickets for 45 runs in 44 balls. That included three sets of two wickets in two balls.
Rakheem Cornwall (32 in 29 balls) and Mark Deyal (11) gave the Zouks a decent start as they batted first. Even though they did not get a solid partnership early, the runs did come along. At the end of the Powerplay the Zouks were 35 for 1 but soon after Andre Fletcher was superbly caught by Jermaine Blackwood. Cornwall got two sixes but Sandeep Lamichhane bowled him soon after. At halfway Zouks were 66 for 4.
Roston Chase led the attack from there and attacked Veersamy Permaul a straight six followed by a paddle-swept four. Lamichhane and Mujeeb tightened up the bowling and the Zouks 88 for 4 after 14. At one stage Lamichhane bowled 11 dot balls in a row.
Najibullah Zadran (35 in 25 balls) broke the shackles with his reverse sweeps with fours and sixes, too. Najibullah and Chase put on 61 fifth wicket. The Zouks reached 125/5 off 18 and last two overs produced 20 as Chase remained not out on 32 and the total touched 145 for six.
Glen Phillips and Jermaine Blackwood gave Tallawahs a solid partnership despite a slow start of 17 in three overs. The Tallawahs reached 46 for no loss off the Powerplay. Then it was 55 for no loss after eight overs and 72 for no loss in 10.
With wickets in hand, another 74 in remaining 10 overs should have been comfortable. Once Phillips left was bowled by Zahir Khan for 49 off 36 at total 84, the procession began. They lost wickets in quick succession and were left 11 short at 134 for nine when the overs ran out.
Chase had 17 to defend off the last over to Mujeeb ur Rehman and Fidel Edwards, who were never likely to get close. The Tallawahs go into a semi-final against the Trinbago Knight Riders.
Brief scores :
St Lucia Zouks 145/6 (Najibullah 35, Chase 32*, Cornwall 32; Mujeeb 2/28, Lamichhane 1/20, Edwards 1/24, Permaul 1/27) beat Jamaica Tallawahs 134/9 (Phillips 49, Kirton 25, Blackwood 25; Glenn 3/16, Zahir 3/25, Williams 2/27) by 11 runs
Player of the match: Zahir Khan