Trinbago Knight Riders have made history in Caribbean Premier League Against Jamaica Tallawahs yesterday on 13 September 2019 at 8 pm local time.
Trinbago Knight Riders have beaten the highest CPL (Hero Caribbean Premier League) ever – the third time that record was broken this season – when they defeated Jamaica Tallawahs with 41 runs at Sabina Park and returned to the top of the table.
Colin Munro, one of the heroes of TKR’s success last season, celebrated his return with an unbeaten 96, Lendl Simmons at 86 and Kieron Pollard at 45, not when fours and sixties flew across the floor and the Tallawahs paid a high price for a bug-scattered ad.
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The Tallawahs made a brave attempt, and Chris Gayle and Glenn Phillips exploded out of the blocks. There was no other way for the Tallawahs, but their progress was checked in the eighth by a double strike by Mohammad Hasnain, who beat Gayle from 24 to 39 and then intercepted Chadwick Walton from an edged move.
Things got even more difficult when Rovman Powell had to retire with a seemingly abdominal injury after hitting his second ball over Midwicket for six minutes. He had felt uncomfortable bowling and did not return to the middle. As Andre Russell also pauses after being hit on the head against St. Lucia Zouks, the sight of Powell with such obvious pain will distress the Tallawahs as three more home games are due next week.
Phillips reached his 50th place after only 22 balls dropped twice when he was in 37th, but his luck ran out of 62nd place when he brought Pollard into the low middle, where Munro made no mistake.
Even if the Tallawahs scored as free as they were, the required quota had risen to over 17, and while the limits for Ramaal Lewis (37 * out of 15) and Javelle Glen (34 * out of 24) went up more wickets than the persecution dropped away – if, in fact, a T20 innings can drop to a total of 226/5.
However, it will not be the batting that will disappoint the Tallawahs as they analyze this defeat.
No-balls and discarded catches cost the Tallawahs a lot of money, with the tone fixed in Power Play when Simmons got caught in the middle by a no-ball. The Knight Riders collected 65/1 in these six overs and only accelerated from there
Simmons drew the second ball of the night for a border behind the square leg before a high-wide defeated everyone to add five more to the total.
For the home team, it would be even worse. Jerome Taylor took 17 balls to complete his first two overs with three wides and two no-balls. Both no-balls proved costly. The free-kick after the first hit was hoisted four times by Simmons, but more importantly, he would have been fired if Taylor had not crossed a second time.
Between these two overs, Sunil Narine beat Green in successive balls for four and six. Three foursome – two of them, of course, on thick outer edges – ensured in Oshane Thomas’ first overtaking manoeuvre that the score ran over 50 without loss.
Zahir Khan finally made the breakthrough, turned one back to Narine and hit his attempted sweep. All thoughts the Tallawahs had of regaining control after this wicket was soon forgotten when leading runner-up Munro stepped into the middle of the Hero CPL of 2018 for its first club of the season. His first ball was cut hard for four and his third ball was wiped backwards for a hero maximum.
Simmons fell twice in the tenth game and also claimed his second heroic maximum of the night when TKR took advantage of the generosity of its hosts to reach 96/1 halfway through.
A cut for two brought Simmons from 32 balls in the 12th to 50, and then the Knight Riders’ innings became truly stratospheric as 154 runs came from the last eight overs.
The 13th, Over Powell’s last, produced 23 runs. Munro smoked two sixes over the side of his leg and Simmons added another with a whip that squealed hard, low and flat over the bowler’s head to clear the rope.
It was the same story the next, as three more sixes rained down on Sabina Park. Munro returned Zahir for the following sixes when he was over 50 before Simmons almost defeated a cameraman with the third hero’s maximum of over.
The Tallawahs eventually saw Simmons back in 15th, but not before adding another 20 runs to the increasingly daunting sum. The wicket had a farce element when it came. Simmons scored the free-kick after another missed shot. Derval Green celebrated the catch before realizing that it was a free-kick and threw a throw in the bowler’s exit to run Simmons out as he tried a third. Overall, he made 86 out of 42, with eight fours and five hero maxima.
The wicket did not change the dynamics of the innings as Pollard stepped in and continued where Simmons left off.
Munro hit Green for two consecutive sixes, as a hundred were a real possibility, but it was Taylor’s final end – the 18th inning – that saw to it that the record books were rewritten. Two more no-balls did not help the bowler as there were 30 runs in total. Remarkably, it would have been even worse if Lewis had not produced a heroic piece of the field in the depths to jump up and throw a ball that seemed sure to return to play for six.
There was still time for four more four and six more when the partnership ended on an unbeaten 88 in just 5.2 overs. The only small disappointment to the Knight Riders was that Munro selflessly gave up the goal in the final and finished only four runs a century ago.
