TKR were off to a banger start as Akeal Hossein removed Rahkeem Cornwall and Alick Athanaze in the very first over. Akeal Hossein played a crucial cameo off 19 runs from 8 balls hitting 4 boundaries in his stay. Jason Holder came to bowl the final over. He conceded just 5 runs from the first 4 balls and got rid of Akeal Hossein but bowled a no ball in the next delivery to Jayden Seales. Terrance Hinds finished the game with a maximum in the penultimate ball of the match.
At that point, TKR seemed done but Akeal Hossein followed up his earlier blitz with the ball by producing a 10-ball 20, to once again bring the chase alive. His dismissal with two balls left seemingly had Royals on the brink, only for Hinds to change the script. For the second game in a row, Trinbago Knight Riders came out on the right side of a thrilling run chase, albeit too close for their comfort, as they registered a last-over win over Barbados Royals by two wickets in Barbados.
Pitch Report and Toss
We’ve moved from pitch no. 5 to no. 3. Square boundaries are 66 and 64 meters respectively. 75 meters down the ground. Pitch is bereft of grass. Looks light brown in color. But I’m told by the curator, there’s less water but more compaction. Don’t expect it to be slower than the other one reckons Darren Ganga in the pitch report.
Trinbago Knight Riders skipper Kieron Pollard won the toss and chose to field with no changes in the playing XI. Barbados Royals skipper Rovman Powell batting first decide to go with the unchanged team.
Akeal Hossein the star with the ball as Barbados Royals were restricted to 156 for 7
TKR were off to a banger start as Akeal Hossein removed Rahkeem Cornwall and Alick Athanaze in the very first over. Quinton de Kock started to give the fightback with a flurry of boundaries. He and Rivaldo Clarke added 53 for the 3rd wicket. Quinton got out for 39 off 21 balls with 3 boundaries and 2 maximums. Jason Holder also got out soon for a duck. Rivaldo Clarke added 18 from 24 balls. Barbados Royals started the fight back as Rovman Powell got going.
David Miller added 19 runs and Keshav Maharaj scored 14 to give him a second fiddle but it was Powell who took the innings forward. He refused to take any single when Theekshana came to the crease and played the last 3 overs. He took 28 runs from those overs and eventually finished unbeaten with 59 runs beside his name from 38 balls with 2 fours and 5 sixes.
Barbados Royals finished with 156 for 7. For TKR, Waqar Salamkheil was the star of the bowling show picking up 3 wickets for just 13 runs. Akeal Hossein and Sunil Narine took 2 wickets each. Pacers went wicketless. Kieron Pollard, the captain of the Trinbago Knight Riders, won the toss and opted to field first in the game. The Royals expected a good start from their two openers, Quinton de Kock and Rahkeem Cornwall. Unfortunately, the start of the innings did not go as planned for the Royals.
Pollard handed over the ball to Akeal Hossein to start the proceeding for his team. Akeal Hossein delivered a wicket on the second delivery. It was the first delivery for Rahkeem Cornwall in the innings. It was a good-length delivery at the off-stump line. Cornwall was looking to cut the delivery, but all he managed was a faint edge to be taken by Quinton de Kock behind the stumps. This golden duck meant that Cornwall recorded his third duck on the bounce. He has played ten deliveries in the last three games without scoring a single run.
The departure of Cornwall brought the talented young batter Alick Athanaze into the crease. Athanaze has earned a reputation in the cricketing fraternity for the talent and promise he has shown early in his career. After the early blow, the Royals would have hoped that Athanaze would accompany de Kock and get the Royals going towards a respectable total.
Although the expectations were high for Athanaze, he only lasted in the middle for up to two deliveries. On the fourth delivery of the over, Akeal Hossein bowled a good length delivery at the off and middle stump. Athanaze read the length wrong and was looking to pull it away. The ball struck him on the pads, and the umpire responded positively to the leg before the fielding team appealed. After Cornwall, Athanaze’s early departure put the Royals in trouble as they had only two runs on board for losing two wickets after the first over.
Royals owed their competitive score to their captain’s well-paced knock. Powell produced a calculative fifty, smashing a 38-ball 59 that had several gears to it with wickets falling around him. TKR’s spin trio of Sunil Narine (2-16), Hossein (2-29) and Waqar Salamkheil (3-13) ensured a stranglehold from the outset despite Quinton de Kock’s early cameo which produced 39 off just 21 balls.
Akeal Hossein started it off while Narine and Salamkheil kept the pressure on to derail Royals’ innings. Meanwhile, Powell dug in and timed his assault well at the back end to ensure that Royals had enough to stay in the contest. As it turned out, it was almost enough to win them the game but they ended up with their first loss.
All round Akeal Hossein gives TKR a nervous 2 wicket victory over BR.
Barbados Royals gave the breakthrough right at the start as Sunil Narine departed for a golden duck in the first ball of the run chase off Maheesh Theekshana. Jason Roy found two boundaries in the second over but Theekshana got better of him in the third over. However, Nicholas Pooran hit him for a six and a boundary to give the fightback. Rain came just after that and the game resumed after 18 minutes as it was a passing shower.
Pooran continued to do his job of hitting the boundaries. He posted 35 runs beside his name in 23 balls with 4 fours and 2 maximums. But on the other end, Shaqkere Parris struggled horrible. He could manage only 15 from his first 26 balls and then accelerated to score 35 runs off 40 balls with 2 fours and a maximum.
Had his innings been a faster one, TKR would’ve got the advantage. Keacy Carty did well to score 32 runs off 21 balls with a boundary and a maximum. But the failure of skipper Kieron Pollard put the Trinbago-based franchise in trouble. Akeal Hossein played a very fine cameo but Andries Gous’ struggle took the things south for TKR. The latter scored just 1 from 7 balls.
Akeal Hossein played a crucial cameo off 19 runs from 8 balls hitting 4 boundaries in his stay. Jason Holder came to bowl the final over. He conceded just 5 runs from the first 4 balls and got rid of Akeal Hossein but bowled a no ball in the next delivery to Jayden Seales. Terrance Hinds finished the game with a maximum in the penultimate ball of the match.
For the Barbados Royals, Maheesh Theekshana bowled par excellence and took 3 wickets for 26 runs. Obed McCoy took 2 wickets. Jason Holder, Naveen and Maharaj took one wicket each. Terrance Hinds smashed a six off the penultimate delivery as Trinbago Knight Riders ended Barbados Royals’ unbeaten record in the 2024 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) after a nerve-jangling two-wicket victory at Kensington Oval.
Chasing 157, the Knight Riders needed 11 runs off the final over and appeared headed for defeat when Akeal Hossein fell off the third delivery with six runs still required. But Jason Holder bowled a waist high full toss and on the subsequent delivery Hinds whacked a six down the ground off the free hit. The Knight Riders now move alongside the Royals with a 3-1 record.
Chasing a competitive target of 157, the game had twists and turns aplenty but with six needed off two balls and two wickets in hand, the game seemed a bridge too far for the visitors. Jason Holder, who endured a nightmarish outing, then bowled a horror waist-high full toss that went for a no-ball, cutting the equation down to four needed off two. Terrance Hinds then nonchalantly smashed the Free Hit over the sightscreen to seal a blockbuster finish.
It was a nervy end to what was a roller-coaster run chase from TKR who started off on a poor note, losing openers Sunil Narine and Jason Roy very early to Maheesh Theekshana. In at a shaky 11/2, Nicholas Pooran then threw a counterpunch through his 23-ball 35 to put the tourists back in front before a combination of terrific team play from Royals saw him out.
Rovman Powell boldly persisted with the left-arm spin of Keshav Maharaj against Pooran, despite the short leg-side boundary at that end, in a bid to bait the southpaw. And the plan worked, although in a different way. The wider line forced a slight miscue that still almost went all the way at long-off, only for Powell to haul it back with Holder for one of T20 cricket’s finest tag team relay catch.
Shaqkere Parris (35 off 40) struggled for momentum on the dicey surface but his 44-run stand with Keacy Party (32 off 21) had TKR once again in front before both perished against the run of play. The partnership was broken by Theekshana while Party fell to a crafty off-cutter from Obed McCoy who had an outstanding night. Naveen-ul-Haq then dealt a massive blow to TKR when Kieron Pollard’s slog against the slower ball only resulted in an inside edge onto the sticks.
At that point, TKR seemed done but Akeal Hossein followed up his earlier blitz with the ball by producing a 10-ball 20, to once again bring the chase alive. His dismissal with two balls left seemingly had Royals on the brink, only for Hinds to change the script.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Kieron Pollard the winning TKR skipper said : A total team effort tonight. When you look at the guys who contributed to the win, when some guys don’t do the job, the others follow up (and get the win). Well played to them (Akeal and Hinds after not being able to get the job done in an earlier match). We were really, really good with our fielding. To restrict them to that total, I would have taken that 10/10 times (before the start of play).
He (Akeal) has done it fantastically well (in the powerplay). Well done to the bowlers (overall). There is obviously room for improvement always. Shaq and Carty were better tonight in terms of rotating the strike and putting pressure on the bowlers at the right moments, and that was an improvement from the last game.
We continue to talk in the dressing room (about improving) and winning such games bodes well (moving forward). Well played to the Royals as well and in the end, we were able to come out on top.
Rovman Powell the losing BR skipper said : Credit has to be given to our boys – they fought to the end. After losing two early wickets, they showed courage (to get to that score). The bowling group did well but we were maybe 10-15 runs short. The bright spot is our bowling. Trinidad is a world-class team and to contain them to that score, with a wet ball and on a wet outfield, credit has to be given to them (the bowlers).
It was a case of me getting through their two key spinners. I knew the fast bowlers would come back and that is my strength. (On being unhappy with the ball change towards the end of the Royals’ innings) I think it was a blunder on the umpires’ part. It had just been four overs and there was not a lot of dew.
When you bowl with a drier ball, it grips a little more. But those things happen. We will take courage from how we played tonight and it is now up to us to forget what happened and gear up (for tomorrow).
Akeal Hossein Player of the Match for his all round show said : We were just trying to stay calm. Myself and Terrance were in a similar situation against Antigua and could not get over the line. Even today, I was upset to leave him alone (to finish it off). The trophy has eluded us for a couple of years. All hands on deck and good to have these type of finishes from the younger guys to help out the senior guys.
The Royals do not know what has happened. They cannot fathom how this has happened. They crowd cannot believe what they have just witnessed. The Royals seemed to have the game in the bag after dismissing Hossein but then Holder transgressed, bowling a waist-high full toss that was ultimately called a No ball.
Hinds then smashed the Free hit a mile back to turn thousands of smiles into more solemn faces. Prior to that, Pooran and Carty did much of the early running. Parris also scratched around for 35 but it came down to the Knight Riders’ lower order to get the job done. And they did get the job done. Just.
A thrilling game of cricket! Chasing 157 to win, TKR started poorly as they lost both openers early. Parris spearheaded the rebuilding effort but was quite slow. Pooran kept up the pace but once he was dismissed, the Knight Riders got into bit of a rut. But that’s where the Royals let things drift a little, a couple of untidy overs meant that TKR caught up in the race once more and it came down to them needing 49 off the last four despite losing a few more wickets.
The Royals had the game in their grasp once more when they got rid of Pollard cheaply and it looked like a sealed deal when Gous was dismissed in the 19th over. With 11 needed in the final over, Holder started well and even removed Hossein leaving TKR with 6 to get off 2. But that’s when he lost the plot and bowled a waist-high full-toss followed by a juicy half-volley to hand the game to TKR.