Andre Fletcher played a fine lone hand for the Kings but the team never got going as a disciplined Trinbago bowling attack kept a firm stranglehold on proceedings throughout.
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Defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) seem to be back on track in the ongoing edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), following a 27-run win over St Lucia Kings in a league encounter. The Trinidad-based franchise made amends for a defeat suffered against the same opposition just two days back, by a slim margin of just five runs. What was common between the two games however was a fine performance by Tim Seifert, who continues to impress one and all.
Seifert smashed 37 runs from 25 deliveries in an innings comprising of four boundaries and two sixes, to help TKR post a total of 158 for the loss of seven wickets. The New Zealand-based cricketer enjoyed support from skipper Kieron Pollard who accumulated 41 runs from 29 balls with six fours and a maximum to his credit. The rest of the batsmen failed to make much of an impact, with Kesrick Williams accounting for a four-wicket haul.
Seifert had smashed a fantastic 40 runs off 16 deliveries in an innings comprising of five boundaries and three sixes, in the previous encounter against the Kings. The cricketer’s heroics helped the Knight Riders compete hard for a triumph, with Colin Munro’s 40 runs off 47 deliveries pushing them into a state of bother. The Knight Riders were 102 for 3 in the 17th over when Seifert came to the crease. He smashed five fours and three sixes in the 18th and 19th overs, off Alzarri Joseph and Keemo Paul. However, with 14 runs needed off the final over, Wahab Riaz who had conceded 61 runs in three overs in the opening game, showcased his determination to ensure a maiden win.
While the conditions were certainly not batting friendly with the slow pitch a key parameter behind the struggle to score freely, the Kings batsmen were guilty of poor decision making. Rahkeem Cornwall, skipper Faf du Plessis and Roston Chase barely managed to score more than 20 runs with their tally of runs combined. However, Andre Fletcher continued to battle it out despite running short of partners at the other end, and seemed to be batting on a different surface in comparison to others. Fletcher remained unbeaten on 81 runs off 55 deliveries in an innings comprising of six boundaries and four sixes respectively.
The opener attempted his best to keep the chase alive, but lack of support from other batsmen as well as a stellar display from the Knight Riders bowling attack simply made it too tough. Ravi Rampaul was the pick of the bowlers, recording a three-wicket haul with Isuru Udana further accounting for two dismissals.
“Very pleased. Sometimes you have to take the initiative, I knew if I came up, they will bring back their main bowlers. It’s about capitalising on those things. He’s confident after a 16-ball 40 in the last game [on Tim Seifert] was good to bat with him, that partnership with him provided the momentum and Ramdin at the end finished it off with a six. We wanted to give us some time in the middle. I knew if I was there at the back end I could capitalize with a couple of sixes. We knew they were going to come hard at the powerplay and once we managed that, it was always going to be difficult in the end,” said Pollard after the win as quoted by Cricbuzz.
Du Plessis was critical of his bowlers, barring Williams.
“We lost it with the ball at the end. 20 too much on that wicket. It’s not easy batting, especially against the spinners. Polly hung in there and he got the bowling at the end to capitalize. We were looking for a similar blueprint. They also showed us how to execute better at the end with the ball. Great character from Williams with the ball,” he stated.
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