CPL 17: Easy riders Trinbago move clear at top, leave beaten Warriors on the edge

Not having yet got the memo, the Guyana Amazon Warriors might have opted out of the 2017 CPL today at the Providence Stadium in Guyana. Put in to bat by Trinbago Knight Riders’ skipper Dwayne Bravo, they lost a mere five wickets in their 20 overs but only managed to get 130 runs on the board.

Not for the first time, the wickets in hand didn’t help them as, led by Brendon McCullum’s breezy 66 off 45 balls, the visitors got to their unchallenging target off just 15.5 overs.

Photo: Trinbago Knight Riders bowler and captain Dwayne Bravo celebrates the wicket of Barbados Tridents batsman Kieron Pollard off the last ball during CPL action at the Queen’s Park Oval on 12 August 2017.
(Copyright Sean Morrison/Wired868)

However, Man-of-the match McCullum, completely at sea against leg-spinner Rashid Khan, could have been out three times in the Afghan leg-spinner’s first over. Dropped at the wicket off the first ball, he was twice reprieved by Guyanese umpire Nigel Duguid, who saw space between the stumps and the ball’s point of contact with the pad where no one else could see any.

McCullum survived; the Warriors paid.


Earlier, with DJ Bravo ringing in the changes, the home team had not been able to cut loose at any stage. They lost Chadwick Walton early after he had taken ten off Beaton’s opening over. When he tried to swing Khary Pierre over the boundary, he merely succeeded in finding the safe hands of Darren Bravo at midwicket.

The struggling Martin Guptill (4 from 10) didn’t really trouble the scorers, falling to spin for the fourth time in five innings. Assad Fudadin looked as though he might do some damage before he departed, adding a rapid 23 with Jason Mohammed. But after successive overs yielded 12 and 11 respectively, including three fours and a six, Nikita Miller induced a false shot and Ronsford Beaton snared the catch at midwicket.

After that, it was the Mohammed slow, oops, show. Coming to the wicket at 16 for 2 in the fourth over, he was dismissed off the last ball of the innings, having only got to 66 off 57 balls. He hit two sixes and six fours but in the end the Warriors needed a rather less modest strike rate than the 113.79 with which he eventually ended.

Photo: Trinbago Knight Riders spinner Sunil Narine (right) bowls during CPL action against Guyana Amazon Warriors on 11 August 2017.
TKR won by seven wickets.
(Courtesy Sean Morrison/Wired868)

Pinch-hitting opener Sunil Narine was gone off the fourth ball he faced, perishing as he sought to attack left-arm orthodox spinner Veerasammy Permaul. Munro replaced him, survived a confident appeal for LBW off the first ball of Sohail’s over, clobbered his third over the boundary and lost his off-stump to the next. Had Walton accepted the chance off McCullum or had Duguid had 20/20 vision, TKR would have been on an unsteady 43 for 3 and perhaps vulnerable.

But Darren Bravo contributed 27 off 19, Ramdin, the hero against the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots at the Oval on Monday, added 20 off 19, including 4-2-6 off the last three balls, and he and McCullum saw the Knight Riders safely over the line to move them to 12 points at the top of the standings.

The Warriors will now need to win all of their remaining four games to have any chance of making the September 5-9 play-offs, scheduled for the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba.

TKR, however, now have a comfortable four-point cushion over second-placed Patriots, who take on the St Lucia Stars in today’s late game. The Patriots and TKR meet in their next fixture, the return game in St Kitts on Wednesday.

Photo: Trinbago Knight Riders batsman Denesh Ramdin goes on the attack during CPL action against Barbados Tridents at the Queen’s Park Oval on 12 August 2017.
(Copyright Sean Morrison/Wired868)

 

Summarised scores


Guyana Amazon Warriors 130 for 5 (Jason Mohammed 66, Gajanand Singh 27, Sunil Narine 1/11)

Trinbago Knight Riders:131 for 3 (Brendon McCullum 65, Darren Bravo 27, Denesh Ramdin 19, Sohail Tanvir 1/20)

Toss: TKR

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About Earl Best

Earl Best taught cricket, French, football and Spanish at QRC for many years and has written consistently for the Tapia and the Trinidad and Tobago Review since the 1970's. He is also a former sports editor at the Trinidad Guardian and the Trinidad Express and is now a senior lecturer in Journalism at COSTAATT.

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53 comments

  1. Correction, Lasana Liburd WI lost by an innings and 209 runs

  2. I understand that police are looking for members of TKR for assault and battery of Amazon worriers

  3. When I look at the young players coming up like Pierre, Miller, Phillip, Beaton, Pooran; I can’t help but feel pain for them. They will never reach their full potential under these marauders on the WICB. We need to get cricket stakeholders from other clubs outside the Caribbean to take ahold of these youngsters to help them achieve that potential. Sad that we can’t develop that here but when you have the cricket boards from our islands appeasing the WICB our choices are limited

  4. The Hope brothers prob wish they were playing CPL, having just achieved the feat of becoming the first brothers to be dismissed 4 TIMES combined in one day of a Test Match. That record will never be broken.

  5. I suppose it is positive that Trinbago Knight Riders beating people from a side but cricket fans rather discuss West Indies… Shows that there might be some hope for the old Maroon Caps after all 🙂

  6. Truly believe the strongest West Indies team possible would still lose to England as well. No problem with grooming a young squad if that is what they are doing.

    • Yep but the strongest West Indies team wouldn’t have failed to reach a tri series final between Sri Lanka by loosing to Zimbabwe and draw a ODI series vs Afghanistan

      This youngsters will either never learn or will learn far too late if they continue to be exposed to international cricket without none of seniors around

    • Nah. I never like hearing that “grooming” business. My belief is having the kids fight for their spot is more valuable in the wrong run than handing it to them.
      Sometimes people see those words and feel they deserve a “sweat”. If two players are close to same level, I’m fine with younger guy getting the nod. But if the older guy is better then I’d play him almost every time!
      The only exception would be if team is doing well and is already stuffed with experience. Then I could gamble on a young passenger.
      The beauty of sport is it is supposed to show us conclusively who the best is. No room for second rate players.

    • I believe the strongest West Indies team would lose as well. But those players would have earned their spot and it would be a better contest which is better for the sport and for West Indies.

    • The best WI team suppose to loose in test matches to teams like India, England, Australia & South Africa in test format

      But they would be on par with New Zealand & Pakistan (And ahead of Sri Lanka & Bangladesh) with their ability to challenge hard enough

    • Lasana, I believe in a philosophy being consistent. Where exactly would the senior players have earned their test places? Many have not been playing in the longer format so not sure the youngsters who were playing then didn’t earn their way. Colin Benjamin not messing with your crystal ball bro.

    • Okay Brian. I can’t argue with that. But that would be my philosophy with all things being equal. I won’t give the kids a damn thing. Let them fight for it. That’s what I would reward.

    • Brian Jordan let former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming & the India cricket team think tank explain why it’s not a wise argument in modern cricket to suggest players not playing first class cricket (especially a very poor standard FC completion like the one in Caribbean) should prevent our best test players from being involved in format when they are fit, available and available over the past 5-6 years

      “In a recent interview with The Cricket Monthly, Stephen Fleming, one of the most successful coaches in franchise T20 cricket, envisaged a future for cricket in which kids will grow up learning T20 and then be taught the finer skills of first-class cricket at more senior levels. On a quiet unsuspecting Sunday in the outskirts of Kandy, that generation announced its arrival. In an exhibition of unencumbered six-hitting, Hardik Pandya might have provided us a brief glimpse into at least part of what the future holds.”

      http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/20329992/project-pandya-provides-peek-future

    • So all paradigms are the same Colin?

    • https://twitter.com/kp24/status/898974304968355840

      “1/2 Just watched WI CEO interview – talking bout 1000’s of kids playing cricket at schools. Those kids want to be T20 cricketers…”

    • https://twitter.com/kp24/status/898974569998024705

      “2/2 And the reason, ALL the current WI stars are playing T20 cricket! Not one is playing Test cricket!
      Test cricket gone in WI soon!”

    • https://twitter.com/kp24/status/898975935545786368

      “Gayle, Bravo, Pollard, Sammy etc. They are the STARS.
      Kids need STARS to aspire to!
      Those STARS are T20 kings!
      Like it not, it’s truth!”

    • Brian Jordan the way we look at cricket has changed a long time ago

      The new generation is already learning the fundamentals of t20 cricket first because that is format that pays, then learning to play tests and it’s already proven a success with players around world like Warner, Ashwin, Finch, McCullum (at back end of his career), Buttler, Stokes, De Kock, Pandaya etc etc

      Hell even Sunil Narine sudden new batting ability as a opener was developed in t20 cricket – instead of playing first class cricket for Trinidad

      #modernreality
      #crickethaschanged

    • Is the paradigm of professional cricket the same here as in India or New Zealand?

    • Brian Jordan I’m not sure how that didn’t answer ur question my friend

      Since it’s a point that is has been boringly debated for over 6 years by the cricket public ever since these guys were exiled before latest amnesty proposal

      So let me ask you this – what specific paradigm comparison about the profession cricket structure in your mind is not clear/you don’t know of/is seeking better understanding about ?

    • So you’re saying the paradigm in the West Indies cricket world is the same as elsewhere? I am asking generally to be clear

  7. Nothing Surprising with this win…..

    What I want to see is how those Bajan and WICB media men gonna try to play down this performance to day by WI.

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