Trinbago Knight Riders defended 147 at Kensington Oval on Saturday, and the chase was effectively finished six overs in.
Trinbago Knight Riders were 110 for 2 with five overs left at Kensington Oval on Saturday and finished on 147 for 6. It looked like a total they would regret. Sunil Narine made sure they did not. He struck three times inside the powerplay, Barbados Royals were 35 for 4 before the field spread, and the chase folded for 112 in 18.3 overs. Trinbago won by 35 runs and stayed in the qualification race.
Pooran was 1 off 10 before he moved
Nicholas Pooran’s innings split cleanly in two. He faced ten balls for a single run while Trinbago crawled to 28 for 1 in the powerplay, then took Mujeeb Ur Rahman for three sixes in an over and reached fifty from 35 balls. He finished with 59 off 37, seven sixes and two fours, which means 50 of his runs came in boundaries. He also got a life on 35, put down off the bowling of Jakeem Pollard, an 18-year-old left-arm seamer playing his first CPL match.
Colin Munro gave him the platform with 38, and their stand of 68 was the biggest of the match by some distance. What Trinbago could not do was finish. Munro was bowled by Mujeeb. Pooran sliced Gudakesh Motie to deep cover, Kieron Pollard went for 15, and the last five overs cost four wickets and produced a total roughly 20 short of where the innings had been heading.
Narine’s powerplay took the game away
Barbados had chosen to field and had every reason to feel good about it. Then Narine opened the bowling with the ring still up. Brandon King was caught at short cover, Quinton de Kock was lbw for a duck, and Rivaldo Clarke went lbw without scoring either. That is a top order removed inside six overs, and 35 for 4 in a chase of 148 is not a position anyone recovers from with a rebuild.
Jyd Goolie took three for 20 from his four overs at the other end. Zachary Carter made 21 before he was bowled and Sherfane Rutherford 21 off 24, and neither innings ever bent the required rate. Eight of the ten wickets went to spin. Narine came back to have Jakeem Pollard caught at long on in the 19th over, finishing with four for 12 and the player-of-the-match award.
Where it leaves both sides
Trinbago are the defending champions and have spent most of this season looking nothing like it. They needed this considerably more than Barbados did, and the margin matters as much as the two points, because a net run rate that had been working against them now looks a little friendlier. They will still need other results to fall their way.
Barbados have the harder arithmetic. Losing by 35 runs against a total under 150, having asked for the chase, is the kind of defeat that costs a side more than one game.
Narine still bowls the first over of an innings with the ring in, and sides still cannot get him away. Four for 12 on a pitch where eight of the ten wickets went to spin is not a bad way to make the point again.
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Barbados TridentsCaribbean Premier LeagueColin MunroCPL 2026Jyd GoolieKensington OvalNicholas PooranQuinton de KockSunil NarineT20 CricketTrinbago Knight Riders
Source: www.sportsadda.asia
