Their backs against the wall after an opening loss in the 2016 Hero CPL T20 tournament against St Lucia Zouks, the Trinbago Knight Riders found a hero in captain Dwayne Bravo, as he led his team to a crucial 11-run win over Barbados Tridents at the Queen's Park Oval on Friday night.
Firstly, he featured in a world record 150-run fifth wicket stand with South African Hashim Amla to take the Knight Riders to 170 for five off their allotted 20 overs. His contribution was an unbeaten 66 and Amla counted a masterclass 81. The right arm seamer then grabbed the crucial wicket of AB de Villiers, as Tridents replied with 159 for eight in 20 overs.
Chasing 171, the visitors got off to a rollicking start with American Steven Taylor and Kyle Hope getting 21 runs from the first two overs. However, great captaincy by Bravo in switching around his bowlers, led to the batsmen having to re-adjust constantly and wickets tumbled.
Taylor got 37 of 37 balls with three fours and two sixes and local player Nicolas Pooran brought the Tridents right back into the game with a whirlwind 33 of 12 balls with three sixes and two fours but the Trinbago bowlers led by mystery man Sunil Narine was too much on the night. The off-spinner finished with 2/21 to lead the pack.
Last night he was expected to do the same as he was facing his old team Guyana Amazon Warriors in Trinbago Knight Riders third match of the tournament.
Earlier, the T&T Knight Riders were not surprisingly put in to bat after Dwayne Bravo lost the toss. With the dew expected to be a negative factor for the bowlers later on.
Tridents started off too hot for the local franchise and soon the scoreboard read 20 for four. The bar owners in Woodbrook would have been anticipating great sales because an early departure by 17,000 patrons at the Oval was anticipated. However it was not to be, as Bravo and Amla restored pride and respectability.
As Amla would put it :"We were very relaxed out there and decided to preserve our wickets because it would have been very bad for us to lose anymore at that point. We were just happy to get the scoreboard going and we just took it from there and in the end was able to take our team to the good score."
And this they did was they eclipsed the previous record of 149 runs for the 5th wicket in club cricket which was created by Yogesh Takawale and Sairaj Bahatule for Maharastra versus Gujarat in India in 2007.
The experienced duo bided their time and produced a massive onslaught at the end where 71 runs came from the final five overs. Ravi Rampaul who impressive with a double strike early on, was carted all over the park as Amla and then Bravo raised their half centuries.
Amla was totally brilliant on the night and was out of the last ball for 81 of 54 balls with five fours and four sixes.Bravo who sent many balls into the dark night finished unbeaten on 66 of 46 balls with three fours and four sixes.
SCOREBOARD
Knight Riders inns
B McCullum b Hosein 1
H Amla b Malik 81
C Munroe b Hosein 6
D Bravo c Pooran b Rampaul 4
U Akmal c Pooran b Rampaul 0
DJ Bravo not out 66
Extras 5lb, 7w 12
Total for 5 wkts (20ovs) 170
Fall of wkts: 7, 15, 20, 20, 170.
Bowling: W Parnell 4-0-35-0, A Hosein 4-0-18-2, R Rampaul 4-0-33-2, A Nurse 3-0-26-0, D Weise 4-0-41-0, S Malik 2-0-12-1.
Tridents inns
S Taylor c Devcich b Narin 37
K Hope b Beaten b Cooper 11
S Malik c DJ Bravo b Benn 28
AB de Villiers c Cooper b DJ Bravo 12
K Pollard c Devcich b Cooper 0
N Pooran run out 33
D Wiese run out 1
A Nurse c Beaton b Narine 1
A Hosein not out 7
W Parnell not out 16
Extras 7lb, 5w, 1nb 13
Total for 8 wkts (20) 159
Fall of wkts: 41, 67, 94, 95, 100, 102, 114, 135.
Bowling: N Miller 3-0-26-0, K Cooper 4-0-42-2, S Benn 3-0-16-1, S Narine 4-0-21-2, DJ Bravo 3-0-24-1, R Beaton 3-0-23-0.
Result: Trinbago Knight Riders won by 11 runs.
Man of the match: Hashim Amla
Trinbago Knight Riders 2pts, Barbados Tridents 0.