Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers capped off their home leg with a sev­en-wick­et vic­to­ry over St Lu­cia Kings at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my in Tarou­ba, San fer­nan­do on Sun­day night, to en­ter the fi­nal phase of the group stage on top of the Caribbean Pre­mier League stand­ings.

Tasked with over­haul­ing 168 at the Bri­an Lara Sta­di­um, open­er Mark Deyal top-scor­ing with 57 from 45 de­liv­er­ies, Irish­man Lor­can Tuck­er chip­ping in with 38 not out from 31 de­liv­er­ies and An­dre Rus­sell blast­ing a 13-ball un­beat­en 29.

New Zealan­der Mar­tin Gup­till (16) and in-form left-han­der Nicholas Pooran (15) both de­part­ed cheap­ly to leave TKR on 45 for two at the end of the sixth over, but the hosts were nev­er re­al­ly in dan­ger, Deyal post­ing 87 for the third wick­et with Tuck­er to set up the win.

Col­in Munro had ear­li­er top-scored an un­beat­en 72 from 51 de­liv­er­ies as Kings tal­lied 167 for three off their 20 overs, af­ter be­ing sent in.

The New Zealan­der struck half-dozen fours and three six­es to hold the Kings in­nings to­geth­er fol­low­ing the ear­ly demise of John­son Charles who made a run-a-ball 13 be­fore hav­ing his stumps cas­tled by speed­ster Jay­den Seales in the fourth over with 18 runs on the board.

Munro put on 76 for the sec­ond wick­et with Ros­ton Chase who made 32 from 31 balls with three fours and a six, be­fore adding a fur­ther 58 in an un­bro­ken fourth wick­et stand with Zim­bab­wean Sikan­dar Raza who belt­ed a 17-ball 34 not out with four fours and a six.

In re­ply, Gup­till mis­cued off-spin­ner Chase to long on in the fourth over be­fore fast bowler Alzarri Joseph (2-42) claimed the prized wick­et of Pooran, squirt­ing to Aus­tralian Pe­ter Hat­zoglou at cov­er point.

Deyal then took charge of the chase, stroking half-dozen fours and two six­es to end a spell of bad form and post his first fifty of the sea­son, Tuck­er sup­port­ing with a 31-ball knock with three fours.

When Deyal fell to Joseph, Rus­sell ar­rived to clob­ber two fours and three six­es, in a 37-run, un­bro­ken fourth-wick­et stand with Tuck­er.

The win was TKR’s sixth in eight games, mov­ing them to 13 points – two clear of un­beat­en Guyana Ama­zon War­riors who host the fi­nal leg this week.

CMC

Scores:

KINGS 167 for three off 20 overs (Col­in Munro 72 not out, Sean Williams 34 not out, Ros­ton Chase 32)

TKR 169 for three off 18.5 overs (Mark Deyal 57, Lor­can Tuck­er 38, An­dre Rus­sell 29; Alzarri Joseph 2-42)

Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers won by sev­en wick­ets.