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Led by the in-form Nicholas Pooran, the Trinbago Knight Riders easily moved past St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the third match of the Republic Bank CPL 2024 at Warner Park in Basseterre, Saint Kitts on Saturday.
Man-of-the-Match Pooran fell only three short of what would have been a well-deserved century but the Patriots fell all of 44 runs short of the 250 for 4 posted by Kieron Pollard’s side.
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Pooran (97) peppered the boundaries with nine sixes and seven fours, racing to 50 off just 21 balls. So dominant was he on the day, he was on course to break the 40-ball record for the fastest CPL 100 when he pulled Anrich Nortje into Dominic Drakes’ hands on the midwicket boundary.
Pollard called the prolific left-hander “fantastic” and “world-class”, adding that the runs he made mattered less than “how he shepherded [Keacy] Carty and continues to encourage everyone in the dressing room”.
Pooran, who took his tally of CPL runs past 2000 during this knock, himself acknowledged that he has “been playing T20 cricket for a long time and […] gained a lot of experience”.
The role he sees for himself as a player, he said, “comes with a lot of responsibility and sacrifice”.
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So, he was “really happy that Keacy and I got to form a partnership and take it as deep as we did” .
The pair came together after STKNP skipper Andre Fletcher won the toss and put the visitors in. His bowlers delivered, removing both openers and 21-year-old emerging player Shaquere Parris early.
But nothing that Fletcher had in his arsenal could slow Pooran and Carty (73, 9×4, 3×6) down.
On a placid pitch and a smallish ground, the left-hand/right-hand combination made the bowling look easy. Carty, dropped twice by Odean Smith and once by wicketkeeper Fletcher, got to his half-century in 29 balls as the pair left all the bowlers except Nortje (4-0-37-2) with unflattering figures.
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Drakes, for instance, who often starred during the Patriots’ winning campaign in 2021, finished with 4-0-77-0. Left-arm wrist spinner Tabraiz Shamsi, often called up to break defiant stands, only used three of his allotted four overs, ending with 3-0-27-0.
Calling Pooran a class act, Fletcher conceded that he “took the game away from us. We were looking to find ways to keep him off strike.”
The major reason for his side’s defeat, he said, was the failure of “execution with the ball”.
“We had a plan and I did not think we executed well. We were trying our best to make the batters hit into the wind but we did not do that consistently enough.”
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Big as the TKR total was, The Patriots have, in Pooran’s words, “a dangerous batting line-up” and, big as the TKR total was, they did not go down without a fight. Fletcher revealed that, in the innings break, he told his team that “they did it and we could do it too”.
The batsmen must have believed. Although Josh Little sent back both the skipper and number 3 Kyle Mayers (6) in the second over of the innings, STKNP still largely managed to keep pace with the 12-plus required run rate throughout the powerplay.
Evin Lewis contributed a rapid 39 off 23 balls and hometown hero Mikyle Louis kept the crowd entertained—his maiden half-century coming off 35 balls.
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But the introduction of Sunil Narine (2/24) in over #6 and the left-handed Waqar Salamkheil (2/41)—whom Pollard dubbed his “world-class spinners”—changed things in TKR’s favour. It slowed STKNP’s steady progress considerably.
Later, Tristan Stubbs (39 off 19, 3×6, 3×4) contrived to strike some lusty blows, enabling his side to get to within 100 of their target. At that stage, though, only five overs were left.
Truth be told, the task always looked beyond the home side once Lewis perished, bowled by Salamkheil in the seventh over.
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Like Narine and Salamkheil, Little finished with two wickets. Former TKR skipper Dwayne Bravo, who announced his intention to retire from CPL action at the end of the current season, bowled two overs in the middle of the innings but went wicketless.
The Patriots are back in action on Sunday when they take on St Lucia Kings at the same venue.
Pollard’s TKR have a four-day break to savour their very satisfying win before they come up against the Antigua and Barbuda Falcons at the Sir Vivian Richards Ground in Antigua on Thursday.
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The Falcons captain as well as the captains of the teams which TKR are still to play would not have been happy to hear Pooran say that he is still “growing nicely” and wants “to win matches and tournaments, […] to win the CPL.”
“If I want to do that,” he ended, “I need to keep doing my job.”
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Summarised scores
Toss: Saint Kitts and Nevis Patriots
Trinbago Knight Riders: 250 for 4 (20 overs) Nicholas Pooran 97, Keacy Carty 73, Sunil Narine 38; Anrich Nortje 2/37, Ryan John 1/55.
Saint Kitts and Nevis Patriots: 206 for 8 (20 overs) Mikyle Louis 56, Kyle Mayers 39, Tristan Stubbs 39, Ryan John 25; Sunil Narine 2/24, Josh Little 2/40, Waqar Salamkheil 2/41.
Man-of-the-Match: Nicholas Pooran
Result: Trinbago Knight Riders win by 44 runs
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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.
