Pollard's sterling knock of 82 was not enough to keep Tridents undefeated in CPLT20 tournament - file photo from IPL
The Barbados Tridents lost for the first time in this year’s Hero Caribbean Premier League as they were defeated by the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots. A superb innings of 82 from Keiron Pollard was not enough to see the Tridents to victory as they suffered only their second home defeat in CPL history. The highest score in the Patriots innings was just 27 but a cameo innings from Carlos Brathwaite and early wickets for Sheldon Cottrell gave the Patriots their first win.
The Tridents started well and were delighted to get Martin Guptill early, the New Zealand opener mistiming a drive to Jason Holder at mid-on. The big Kiwi had hit two sixes in his innings of 23 off 15 balls and was looking dangerous prior to his dismissal.
His opening partner, Evin Lewis, could have been removed when he was completely deceived by a Ravi Rampaul slow ball bouncer that he top edged into the leg side but it landed short of the fielders in that region. The young Trinidadian survived that close call but couldn’t make the most of the life as he was out when he top edged another pull shot off Rayad Emrit to be dismissed for 19 off 25 balls.
Marlon Samuels promoted himself up the order to bat at three having been at five in the last match where he finished undefeated on 52. Here he gave himself more time to make an impact but the move didn’t work as he slashed the ball to third man just two balls after Lewis was dismissed. Emrit could have had three wickets in the over when Jason Holder failed to take a tricky catch over his shoulder that could have dismissed Orlando Peters.
Some tight bowling and early wickets meant that the Patriots limped to 63-3 off the first 10 overs of their innings. As hard as they tried to break the shackles the Patriots could not increase the scoring rate. Peters became the highest scorer of the innings on his way to 27 off 22.
Devon Thomas was out bowled by Jeevan Mendis attempting a slog sweep and Peters himself was dismissed by Keiron Pollard to leave the Pakistani pair of Shahid Afridi and Sohail Tanvir batting together.
Afridi hit one of the largest sixes that you will see when he blasted Rampaul all the way onto the Kensington Oval practice pitches. He repeated the trick the very next ball with another massive Hero maximum. Being Afridi he went for three in a row only to be caught on the mid-wicket boundary.
Some late order hitting from Brathwaite took the innings run rate above a run a ball as his 22 off 10 balls lifted the Patriots total to 143-8 from their 20 overs.
At the beginning of the Tridents innings Cottrell bowled with real pace and aggression asking questions of both Smith and Dilshan Munaweera. However it was Tanvir that got the break through when Munaweera top edged a pull shot to the wicket having made two runs off 12 balls. Cottrell eventually got his reward for some superb bowling when he dismissed Smith and Jonathan Carter in the space of three balls, giving his trademark salute to celebrate.
That left the Tridents 15-3 at the end of the Powerplay and under pressure for the first time in this year’s CPL. At the halfway stage the Tridents had made only 36-3 needing more than 10 an over. Shoaib Malik and Keiron Pollard were together with a huge amount to do.
Both men are hugely experienced and with eight overs to go they began to accelerate. Cottrell came back to finish his four overs, ending up with outstanding figures of 2-13 that included a maiden.
A brief shower held up progress and upon the resumption the Tridents continued their come back with Pollard reaching his half century off 40 deliveries. Malik also found the boundary, but Pollard’s power and placement was incredible. One four threaded a gap between two men on the cover boundary that were only 30 yards apart.
Afridi picked up the wicket of Malik to leave everything in Pollard’s hands, even more so when Jason Holder departed well caught in the deep by Brathwaite. Robin Peterson was out first ball and Pollard was running out of partners.
The equation going into the final over was 19 to win with Pollard on strike. He missed the first ball but then hit a six and a four before a no ball from Peters left the Tridents needing eight from three balls. A single from Pollard brought Nevin Stewart on strike to face his first ball. Stewart hit that for four to leave the Tridents needing three off the last ball. He could only manage a single as the Patriots won by one run.
With two last ball finishes in two matches this year’s Hero CPL has really caught fire.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Courtesy CPL Media
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