TRINBAGO Knight Riders (TKR), with an electric crowd supporting them at the Queen’s Park Oval in St Clair, grabbed their second win of the 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with a 26-run victory over Guyana Amazon Warriors.
Batting first, TKR delivered one of their better batting performances this season posting 150/8 in 20 overs.
TKR would have been disappointed with the final total as at the halfway stage the TT franchise laid a solid platform getting to 71/2 after ten overs.
TKR have lost early wickets throughout the tournament and it was no different on Wednesday night as Tion Webster fell first ball leg before to Romario Shepherd for a duck.
Colin Munro and Nicholas Pooran then attempted to rebuild the innings.
Munro struck rookie off-spinner Junior Sinclair for six over mid-wicket, then Pooran hit a four down to wide fine leg and got a fortuitous four down to wide third man.
Pooran continued to punish Shepherd hitting the medium pacer for six over square leg, but Shepherd had the last laugh as Pooran chased a wide delivery and was caught behind by wicket-keeper Heinrich Klaasen for 15.
The scoring slowed down following the loss of Pooran, as Munro and Tim Seifert tried to avoid further damage by being watchful.
Medium pacer Keemo Paul and leg-spinner Imran Tahir kept Seifert and Munro quiet with tight bowling as TKR progressed to 52/2 after eight overs.
Munro broke the drought of boundaries with a four down to long-on off pacer Odean Smith.
Seifert then got into the action hitting a four down to wide third man as TKR scored 13 runs off the ninth over.
TKR would have been satisfied getting to 71/2 after ten overs as a platform was laid for power hitters Andre Russell and Kieron Pollard.
[caption id="attachment_975109" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Trinbago Knight Riders left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein (second from left) bowls to Guyana Amazon Warriors batsman Heinrich Klaasen (second from right) during the teams' Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) match at the Queen's Park Oval, St Clair on Wednesday. - Ayanna Kinsale[/caption]
TKR lost wickets regularly in the second half of the innings and only increased the scoring rate slightly.
Munro was caught on the boundary for 42 off 37 balls by Paul Stirling attempting a sweep shot to give left-arm spinner Tabriz Shamsi the wicket. Russell’s dismal run of form continued as he was caught for three at wide long-on attempting a slog sweep to give Tahir the scalp.
Sunil Narine surprisingly came to the crease before Pollard and entertained the near capacity crowd, the largest crowd of this year’s tournament.
Guyana Amazon Warriors captain Shimron Hetmyer led by example in the field completing a catch diving forward running in from the long-on fence to dismiss Seifert for 27 off 35 balls.
Pollard finally came to the middle and settled down quickly pulling a short ball from Shamsi over the mid-wicket boundary and in the same over cleared the long-on fence despite not timing it perfectly.
Shamsi got his revenge as Pollard was bow
