Match Details
08:19 AM IST, 10:49 PM IST: A comfortable victory for the Trinbago Knight Riders as they move into the second position with this 8-wicket victory over the Antigua & Barbuda Falcons. A fine start to the home leg with Keacy Carty and Alex Hales registering fifties while Nicholas Pooran applied the finishing touches to take the side home with 8 balls to spare.
Chasing 147 for victory, TKR got off to a decent start with the Falcons’ seamers erring in line and length. However, Colin Munro struggled to score nine off 10 balls before he found Karima Gore’s safe hands at deep square-leg off Shakib Al Hasan’s bowling in the 4th over. There were no more casualties in the Powerplay for TKR after that though as they finished the phase with 42/1 on the board.
The duo of Alex Hales and Keacy Carty patiently built a
partnership with TKR moving to 70/1 at the half-way stage of the innings. Carty,
in particular, played some elegant strokes as he went onto register his 3rd
CPL fifty. The Falcons also failed to take an opportunity to break the partnership
with Andries Gous missing out on a stumping opportunity off Karima Gore’s
bowling when Alex Hales was on 33. It was Jayden Seales who eventually broke the 87-run partnership by dismissing Carty in the 16th over but it was too late by then.
On the way to victory, Hales brought up his 88th fifty in T20 and thereby equaled Chris Gayle's number of fifties as well. In the end, Pooran struck a huge maximum to help TKR register their first win against the Falcons in 4 attempts.
Earlier in the match, Mohammad Amir came up with a stunning first over as he dismissed Rahkeem Cornwall and Karima Gore for ducks. Jewel Andrew held one end together by striking a few boundaries as the Falcons closed out the Powerplay at 43/2. However, Andries Gous didn't get going at all and was castled by Akeal Hosein for 14 in the seventh over.
Akeal also had Shakib Al Hasan caught at short fine-leg off the last ball of his spell as the Falcons went nowhere in their innings. The score soon became 71/6 with Andre Russell taking two wickets in the space of three balls in the 12th over. Then, Usama Mir came in and played 11 dot balls before getting off the mark while he also had a reprieve later on with TKR not reviewing a caught-behind opportunity. The lower-order batter took advantage and smashed 34 off 26 balls which included three maximums.
It was only in the penultimate over that Amir removed Usama to break the 64-run stand with Imad Wasim. In the meantime, the skipper Imad had also pulled his quad muscle but he held on to strike a couple of boundaries in the final over to help the Falcons finish with 146/7. At the end of the innings, Imad had to be helped to the dressing room by the physio and he didn't turn out for the 2nd innings as well due to the injury.