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When Nicholas Pooran does not get off, Trinbago Knight Riders do not get over the line. Sometimes. In Match 28 of the 2024 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) at the BLCA in Tarouba on Friday, Pooran made 27.
When Quinton de Kock does not get off, Barbados Royals do not get over the line. Often. In conditions that did not make for the best cricket at the BLCA in Tarouba on Friday evening, de Kock made 8.
Photo: Ashley Allen – CPL T20/CPL T20 via Getty Images
So, the result? Not in doubt. The winners posted 175 for 7 batting first and their eventual margin of victory was 30 runs.
The Royals have now finished last of the four qualifying teams and know what their playoff fate will be: Wednesday’s Eliminator in Providence.
TKR are not yet certain if they will be there too and find themselves forced to beat the Royals one more time this season to keep alive their hopes of adding a fifth CPL title to their collection.
On Saturday morning, the Saint Lucia Kings and the Guyana Amazon Warriors face off in Providence. Should the hosts come out on top, their new 14-point tally would mean curtains for Pollard’s men’s chances of avoiding a two-match playoff to get to the final…
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868
…unless they were somehow able to put a really massive licking on the defending champions in their last league phase assignment, also at Providence on Sunday evening.
But the win would have to be so massive as to boost their current net run-rate of 0.090 to something above whatever Faf du Plessis’ side’s current NRR of 0.959 drops down to from a putative Saturday loss to the home side.
On Friday evening, the Royals won the toss and opted to let the home side have first strike in a game that began a full hour after the scheduled start.
The 20,000-plus drops of water making up the red sea had made getting to the ground on time a real challenge for everyone, including the teams.
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868
And the many drops of H2O falling from the sky in late afternoon did not help, making conditions underfoot less than ideal and eventually forcing as many as three ball changes in the course of the first innings.
It did not stop Maheesh Theekshana (3/35), whose 2024 tally of wickets now stands at 15—second only to the Kings’ Noor Ahmad, who is one ahead—from removing Jason Roy in the first over.
Nor did it stop Naveen-ul-Haq (3/35), to widespread dismay if not consternation all around the BLCA, from having Pooran caught by de Kock inside the powerplay.
But in partnership with Keacy Carty, Kieron Pollard stopped the slide—after coming to the crease at 35 for 3, following de Kock’s catch from Shaqkere Parris off Jason Holder in over #5.
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868
Pollard and Carty steadied the ship with a 72-run stand for the fourth wicket.
In over #12, Carty, whose 32 took him 34 balls to complete, survived a curious run-out appeal. With the 27-year-old St Maarten player well out of his ground, Royals’ skipper Rovman Powell failed to collect the throw cleanly. But the ball appeared to ricochet off his hand and dislodge the second bail.
The not out decision allowed the partnership to add a further 28 runs, including the 20 they took off Keshav Maharaj in the next over and the six Carty struck over cover off Naveen with one hand.
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868
In the same over, Naveen ended Carty’s vigil, after which Pollard (42, 27, 4×6) and Andre Russell (31, 12, 4×6, 1×4)—whose tally of CPL sixes reached 150—struck a few lusty blows to put the target beyond the back-pedalling Royals.
Powell’s side’s confidence has been steadily undermined by their lengthening string of losses. And Man-of-the-Match Akeal Hosein’s sent that needle under E with his early dismissal of both openers, Kadeem Alleyne (2) and de Kock (8) inside the powerplay
Not for the first time, the left-hander attempted to clear midwicket but could only find the safe hands of Roy.
Trinbago Knight Riders spinner Akeal Hosein (centre) celebrates a wicket during Republic Bank CPL action against the Barbados Royals at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba on 27 September 2024.
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868
Right after the water break, Hosein would claim Emerging Player Kevin Wickham (23, 3×4) to end a defiant third-wicket stand of 53 between him and Alick Athanaze (44, 33b, 4×6, 1×4) and finish with fine figures of 3/15, which did not flatter him.
Athanaze clubbed Waqar Salamkheil over the boundary in his second over. But he could not clear Roy on the midwicket boundary when he tried to repeat the feat off Chris Jordan’s seamers in the very next over.
If Salamkheil had held on to a chance offered by David Miller, on 2, off Terrence Hinds in the very next over, the margin of victory would very likely have been larger.
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868
Miller clobbered Jordan for two fours and two sixes in the 15th over and showed his gratitude to the mystery spinner by slamming another maximum off him in his next over.
When Carty held on to a skier from Miller (15 balls, 3×6, 2×4) despite a collision with substitute fielder Jayden Seales, the Royals’ effort petered out.
From 117 for 5 at the fall of Miller’s wicket, they got as far as 145 for 9, with Powell contributing a pair of sixes and a pair of fours in a tortured 21-ball 18.
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868
Powell was on only four after his first 11 balls but got 13 off the next six.
The spinners, who bowled all six overs in the powerplay, ended with four wickets between them while Jordan (3/33) and Terrance Hinds (2/22) finished with a well-deserved five.
Strangers things have happened in cricket. But it would be nothing short of extraordinary if somehow this year’s final did not involve SLK and GAW—as Wired868 confidently predicted before the start of the weekend’s final three matches.
Photo: Ashley Allen – CPL T20/CPL T20 via Getty Images)
Summarised scores
Toss: Barbados Royals
Trinbago Knight Riders: 175 for 7 (20 overs) Kieron Pollard 42, Keacy Carty 32. Andre Russell 31, Nicholas Pooran 27; Naveen-ul-Haq 3/35, Maheesh Theekshana 3/35
Barbados Royals: 145 for 9 (20 overs) Alick Athanaze 44, David Miller 30, Kevin Wickham 23; Akeal Hosein 3/15, Chris Jordan 3/33, Terrance Hinds 2/22
Man-of-the-Match: Akeal Hosein
Result: Trinbago Knight Riders win by 30 runs
| Position | Team | Played | Won | Lost | No result | Points |
| — | ||||||
| 1 | SLK | 9 | 7 | 2 | — | 14 |
| — | ||||||
| 2 | GAW | 8 | 6 | 2 | — | 12 |
| 3 | TKR | 9 | 6 | 3 | — | 12 |
| 4 | BR | 10 | 5 | 5 | — | 10 |
| 5 | ABF | 10 | 3 | 7 | — | 6 |
| 6 | STKNP | 10 | 1 | 9 | — | 2 |
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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.
