AKEAL Hosein led with an inspired blowing performance but Lendl Simmons' knock of 70 and three catches, on Sunday, saw reigning Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 champions Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) defeat the Jamaica Tallawahs by seven wickets, with three overs to spare.
The much-needed victory follows the TKR's super over loss to the Guyana Amazon Warriors on Wednesday. The TKR will again face the Tallawahs on Tuesday. The win put TKR third in the six-team standings with six points and a net run rate of 0.515.
In their latest effort at Warner Park, Basseterre, St Kitts, however, TKR's blushes were spared since the result could have gone the other way, had the Tallawahs been more clinical in the field.
The TKR won the toss, chose to field, and quickly executed the game plan. But after a brilliant first few overs, TKR players were left wondering how the Tallawahs managed to finish with a respectable and relatively competitive 144 runs.
[caption id="attachment_911348" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Ravi Rampaul (2R) and Kieron Pollard (R) of Trinbago Knight Riders celebrate the dismissal of Kirk Mckenzie (L) of Jamaica Tallawahs during the 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League match 18 at Warner Park Sporting Complex on Sunday in Basseterre, St Kitts. Photo courtesy CPL T20[/caption]
Simmons said he would always have been happy with that score.
"We know that partnerships do happen and (we knew) at some point in time, they would get their (partnership)," Simmons said during the post-match interview.
"(If told before the game) we would have them for 140-something, we would (have taken) that any day and seeing that it was a good batting track, we backed our batsmen to go out there and get there runs.
"I took pride in my performance because I have not been living up to my reputation for the past five games so I've come to the party now.
Hosein was at his best for the TKR, claiming a pair of wickets, while conceding just 12 runs from four overs, while Sunil Narine, Ravi Rampaul and captain Kieron Pollard, all kept the Tallawahs at bay for the first half of their batting performance.
The match had every indication of a walk in the park for TKR, since it took Hosein only two deliveries in the first over to claim Kennar Lewis' scalp with a delivery caught easily by Colin Munro.
TKR looked in record-setting form all the way up the ten-over mark, having taking five wickets and restricting the Tallawahs to just 34 runs.
Rampaul claimed his second wicket with the first ball of the third over, with Simmons, taking a catch off Haider Ali's poorly measured strike.
Two balls later, Rampaul got his second wicket, foiling Kirk McKenzie with a slow ball, with Ramdin taking the catch.
The Tallawahs finally got their first boundary in the fourth over, with Mohammed smashing a short ball from Hosein, only for Mohammed to be sent to the pavilion after Hosein's very next delivery, again caught by Simmons.
Narine took a wicket in the sixth over when his delivery to Powell was caught cleverly by Simmons for h
