Global Sport Through a Caribbean Lens

KNIGHT RIDERS START CPL TITLE DEFENSE WITH COMFORTABLE WIN

Sunil Narine spun Trinbago Knight Riders to a convincing win over St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in their rain affected CPL encounter.

CRICKET- CPL

By Monique Lalor

8/9/20262 min read

Defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders made light work of St Kitts and Nevis in match number 2 of Republic Bank CPL action winning by 19 runs in a rain affected encounter on DLS method. Knight Riders won the toss and sent the host to take first and reaped instant reward. The opening bowling pair of Sunil Narine and Akeal Hosein stifled the Patriots batters and had them reeling on 24-for-3 after 6 overs.

Patriots labored to 109-for-9 off their 20 overs, Kevin Wickham top scored 38. Johnson Charles 21 and Ashmead Nedd 18 made useful contributions. Sunil Narine ended with impressive bowling figure of 3-for-7 on a 1-point-75 economy rate. Terrance Hinds also picked up 3 wickets conceding 33 runs and Dominic Drakes claimed 2-for-20.

Chasing a target of 110, Knight Riders stuttered at the start losing openers Alex Hales and Colin Munro in close succession leaving TKR at 34-for-2 in 5.3 overs.

Matthew Breetzke 35 not out and Joshua Da Silva 18 steadied things with a 54-run partnership before Da Silva retired hurt with the score at 88-for-2 at the 13th over mark.

When the rain came down a second time TKR were comfortably ahead of the DLS score of 75, they were on 94-for-2 in 15 overs.

Knight Riders captain Akeal Hosein was pleased with his team’s performance “…such a young team with new faces to put on that sort of bowling performance. Really happy, we had our doubts but with that being said, I think it was just experience that really took part.”

Patriots captain Jason Holder expressed his team’s difficulties with the playing conditions “Not easy to bat on, not easy to start on. I think it's a wicket that you need to spend some time on in order to accumulate some runs. Maybe in hindsight, we probably should have just settled for in and around 130, 140. I'd be content with that. I felt that might have been, you know, good enough. But it's tough, you know, when you're trying to set a total in a new tournament, you know, expecting the wicket to be probably a little bit truer, but unfortunately it wasn't.”