RBCPL24: Pooran wins battle for TKR; but GAW edge war for top-two finish

In the splendid third CPL century he scored on Sunday evening, Nicholas Pooran got only one life.

His 59-ball 101 put Trinbago Knight Riders on track to score a massive win over heavy favourites Guyana Amazon Warriors in Match 30 of the Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) at Providence in Guyana.

And if substitute fielder Bryan Charles had held on to either of  the two catches offered by Gudakesh Motie during a crucial ninth-wicket partnership with his captain Imran Tahir, TKR would have sprung a massive surprise.

They would have escaped Tuesday’s Eliminator against the fourth-place finisher, Barbados Royals, whose 35-run loss the St Lucia Kings on Saturday morning confirmed their status as the final fours’ also-rans.

In the event, despite the defeat by 74 runs, the defending champions still managed to finish atop the six-team table.

Chasing TKR’s huge 211 for 5 and needing to score 104 to secure their place in the Qualifier, they eventually got there. And eventually to 137 all out. Thanks to Motie (26, 28, 2×6) and Imran (20, 20, 2×4)—and Charles!

They will now take on second-placed St Lucia Kings in Wednesday’s Qualifier.

The decisive moment in that outcome came in the 12th and 13th overs. Having completed his four overs early, as is his wont, Akeal Hosein left the field to be replaced by Charles, still to play his first game.

And when, with the score at 89 for 8, Motie swung at Terrance Hinds and failed to make proper contact, Charles settled under the high catch and grassed it.

Only four runs had been added when, off the first ball of the next over, Motie edged Waqar Salamkheil, easily the best of the bowlers on the day, to slip. Charles fell to his left, got both hands to the rapidly travelling ball but could not hold on.

After that, TKR captain Kieron Pollard used six different bowlers, including himself, Salamkheil and Tim David but could not dislodge the obdurate Tahir, playing a genuine captain’s knock, and a more circumspect Motie.

The left-hander would get another life when he swung Pollard out to Hinds in the deep on the leg-side only for him to let the ball fall through his hands for a maximum.

Earlier, knowing what was on the line, Pollard won the toss and opted to try to set a target beyond the reach of the Warriors and bowl them out cheaply.

Pooran obliged as far as achievement of the first goal went. He might be in trouble with the courts if charged for abuse.

But none of the bowlers had a case as far as the Equal Opportunities Commission was concerned; he dished out the licks to all and sundry and on both sides of the wicket. Peppering onside and off-side boundaries with precision, he contrived to reach the boundary nine times, to clear in one time less.

He raced to his half-century, his third in the CPL this season, his 14th overall, inside the powerplay. He did not slow down even after Tahir was able to put a few more fieldsmen in place to protect the boundaries.

He also brought his season’s tally of runs to 413, a mere 21 behind current batting aggregate leader, Quinton de Kock.

Coming together at the end of the first over when Tahir bowled Shaqkere Parris, he and Jason Roy were not separated until the 15th, their partnership a TKR record 153.

Roy (34, 26, 2×6, 2×4) launched Shamar Joseph’s first ball of his second over—his first, the last of the powerplay, had gone for 17—into space and found the safe gloves of wicketkeeper Shai Hope waiting for its return to earth.

In the preceding over, Pooran had got to his 100 off 57 balls and the team total had reached 150. But the 61 runs TKR added after that proved rather less than Pollard might have hoped for, even expected.

Pooran had had his only blemish in over #13, Moeen Ali completely misjudging a skier that eventually landed safely between him and the bowler.

Dwayne Pretorius would end Pooran’s innings on review, the left-hander tickling him down the leg-side for Hope to grab another catch. The promoted Andre Russell (9) and the continuing clueless Tim David (0) contributed nothing.

It was left to Pollard (19*) and the growing-in-confidence Keacy Carty (27*) to take 13 and 17 off the last two overs from Romario Shepherd and Joseph (3/50) and get the target over the psychological barrier that is 200.

At the start of the GAW innings, Emerging Player Nathan Edward had new opener Kevlon Anderson LBW in the second over.

But that let in Shai Hope, who was almost immediately into stride, taking 26 off Andre Russell’s first over. That onslaught meant GAW were more than halfway to the total needed to determine the final placings.

Hope and opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz put on 58 for the second wicket, taking 26 off Russell’s first over, the last of the powerplay. But in his last over, Hosein trapped Hope (28, 19, 3×4, 2×6) LBW with a quicker arm ball and it all went south after that.

Salamkheil (3/26) and Hinds (3/17) delivered consecutive miserly double-wicket overs just before the water break and the left-hander claimed another immediately after it to make the score 81 for 7.

But after Moeen fell at 89 for 8, Charles twice intervened negatively as far as TKR were concerned. That allowed the fighting 49-run ninth-wicket stand of between Motie (26*) and Tahir (20) to steer them to safety.

Then Edward (3/19) accounted for the stubborn Tahir and Joseph with consecutive balls.

But they had done enough by then to push them into first place on the table above SLK, who now await them on Wednesday.

Two ironies in the match: number one is that the crucial first dropped catch had come off the bowling of Hinds, who also put one down when it mattered far less.

Number two, on a day when Man-of-the-Match Pooran, whose four lives allowed TKR to get past the Royals in the week gone by, got a century to make an unlikely, top-two-snatching victory possible—Motie got three lives to see that door slammed shut in TKR’s face.

Summarised scores

Toss: Trinbago Knight Riders

Trinbago Knight Riders: 211 for 5 (20 overs) Nicholas Pooran 101, Jason Roy 34, Keacy Carty 27*; Shamar Joseph 3/50

Guyana Amazon Warriors: 137 all out (18.5 overs) Rahmanullah Gurbaz 36, Shai Hope 28, Gudakesh Motie 26*, Imran Tahir 20; Terrance Hinds 3/17, Nathan Edward 3/19, Waqar Salamkheil 3/26

Man-of-the-Match: Nicholas Pooran

Result: Trinbago Knight Riders win by 74 runs

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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.