dailynewsnblog
Trinbago Knight Riders 94 for 2 (Breetzke 35*) beat St Kitts And Nevis Patriots 109 for 9 (Wickham 38, Narine 3-7, Hinds 3-33) by 19 runs (DLS method)
Sunil Narine turned up as he often does in T20s – especially in the CPL – and produced a bowling performance for the ages with incredulous figures of 4-1-7-3 to demolish St Kitts And Nevis Patriots in Kingstown. Narine’s effort restricted Patriots to just 109 for 9 in a rain-hit match which gave Trinbago Knight Riders a 19-run win, by DLS method, for a considerable NRR boost at the start of the tournament.
Rain delayed the start of the game after TKR opted to bowl but nothing could delay Narine getting a grip on the Patriots innings. Opening the bowling with Akeal Hosein, Narine struck twice on consecutive deliveries to remove Andre Fletcher and Kyle Mayers. He turned the ball away from Fletcher to induce an outside edge for slip and then switched to around the wicket to turn the ball into Mayers to trap him lbw. In his next over, Narine also had Alick Athanaze cut one off the edge to slip for a duck, getting the decision in his favour with the help of a review.
Narine ended the powerplay with a maiden leaving Patriots struggling on 24 for 3 before more wickets fell. Jyd Goolie had Johnson Charles caught behind and Terrance Hinds sent back Jason Holder and Navin Bidaisee on consecutive deliveries to leave Patriots on 47 for 6. A bit of rain and boundaries from No. 5 Kevin Wickham stalled the fall of wickets and pushed Patriots past 75. But the wickets returned as Dominic Drakes – on TKR debut – had Wickham and Saurabh Netrawalkar caught in the 17th over before a few boundaries from McCoy and Ashmead Nedd helped them past 100.
The TKR chase saw a bit of a stutter at the start as the openers Alex Hales and Colin Munro fell within the space of 10 balls. Joshua Da Silva and Matthew Breetzke – also on debut for TKR – steadied them with a half-century stand before Da silva retired hurt for 18 with the score on 88 for 2 after 13 overs. When the rain returned two overs later, TKR were 94 for 2 and well ahead of the DLS target which gave them two points.
It was Narine’s 10th Player-of-the-Match award in the CPL, where Kieron Pollard leads the list with 15. Pollard and TKR’s regular captain Nicholas Pooran – joint-second on the awards list – have not joined the CPL yet as they are at the Hundred with MI London, where Pollard is part of the coaching staff.
