McCullum fires TKR top of CPL

Brendon McCullum of Trinbago Knight Riders plays a sweep shot during a previous the Hero Caribbean Premier League match vs Jamaica Tallawahs. PHOTO BY CPL T20
Brendon McCullum of Trinbago Knight Riders plays a sweep shot during a previous the Hero Caribbean Premier League match vs Jamaica Tallawahs. PHOTO BY CPL T20

TRINBAGO Knight Riders (TKR) continued their excellent form on the road, winning their third match in a row with a four-wicket victory over the Barbados Tridents at Kensington Oval in Barbados, last night.

Chasing just 129 for victory, Brendon McCullum’s swashbuckling half-century lifted TKR to 130/6 in 16.3 overs. The result elevated TKR to top of the standings on net run rate with four wins and two losses from six matches.

The Knight Riders chase got off to a shaky start as they were reduced to 37/3 in the sixth over with Chris Lynn (eight), Sunil Narine (13) and Colin Munro (14) all back in the pavilion.

However, McCullum led the recovery alongside a surprisingly struggling Darren Bravo .

McCullum struck spinner Ashley Nurse for a six and a four in the same over as Knight Riders got to 50/3 after eight overs.

Darren then fell for two as Raymon Reifer got the breakthrough, pegging TKR back at 60/4 after 9.1 overs.

But the match slipped through Barbados Tridents’ hands when Dwayne Smith dropped a sitter at short mid-wicket to give new batsman Denesh Ramdin a life. McCullum, who was earlier dropped by Tridents captain Jason Holder off his own bowling, continued to play his shots with Ramdin willing to give him the strike.

Ramdin fell for 20 and McCullum (66) also lost his wicket trying to end the match in style. Dwayne Bravo hit the winning boundary for TKR. Pacer Mohammad Irfan was the top bowler, taking 2/24 in four overs.

Earlier, Tridents were rocked in their innings, reduced to 3/3 with left-arm spinner Khary Pierre leading the way for the Knight Riders. Pierre got the wickets of Dwayne Smith for two and Steve Smith for duck and also ran out Shamar Springer for duck all in the second over.

Tridents recovered somewhat, getting to 32/3 after five overs with Shai Hope and Nicholas Pooran at the wicket. The pair batted intelligently, taking singles and hitting the occasional boundary.

Pooran welcomed Dwayne Bravo into the attack with a six over extra cover with his first ball of the match. Hope then struck a four down to third man as the Tridents fans mood changed as they tried to start the Mexican wave. Before the over was complete, however, Dwayne Bravo deceived Pooran with a slower ball and shattered his stumps for 34 off 21 deliveries.

Jason Holder and Hope started to rebuild the innings slowly but could only put on 17 before leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed struck twice in the same over. Ahmed bowled Hope for 42 before Tion Webster was stumped for one. Tridents were now 92/6 after 13 overs.

Spinners Sunil Narine and Ahmed kept the scoring rate down with Raymon Reifer and Holder at the wicket. Reifer tried to increase the scoring but he did not last long, caught at mid-wicket fence by Dwayne Bravo to give fast bowler Ali Khan the wicket.

Holder was caught and bowled by Bravo as the latter ran about 20 metres to take the catch at mid-off. Tridents only got 13 runs off the last two overs as they limped to 128/8 in 20 overs.

SUMMARISED SCORES: Barbados Tridents 128/8 (Shai Hope 42, Nicholas Pooran 34, Jason Holder 30, Khary Pierre 2/29, Dwayne Bravo 2/23, Fawad Ahmed 2/13) vs Trinbago Knight Riders (Brendon McCullum 66, Denesh Ramdin 20, Mohammad Irfan 2/24).

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"McCullum fires TKR top of CPL"

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