St Kitts and Nevis Patriots became the 2nd team to qualify for the playoff stage as they defeated Barbados Tridents in a thrilling encounter played at Bridgetown, Barbados on Saturday.
Kitts and Nevis Patriots captain Carlos Braithwaite won the toss and decided to bat first. It was a slow start by Mohammed Hafeez and Evin Lewis who added just 13 runs. Jason Holder got the breakthrough dismissing Hafeez for 14 balls 6. At the end of 6 overs, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots scored 32 for 1.
Barbados Tridents bowlers continued to make the scoring difficult. Brooks played a crucial knock and reached his fifty off 30 balls. Devon Thomas scored a quickfire 20 off 16 balls. Fabien Allen 20 off 13 balls and Cottoy 13 off 10 balls helped ST Kitts and Nevis Patriots post 149 for 7 in 20 overs.
Chasing down the target of 150 runs to win, Johnson Charles was dismissed cheaply for 13 off 12 balls. Alex Hales and Shakib AL Hasan steadied the Barbados innings putting pressure on Carlos Braithwaite led side bowling. At the end of 6 overs, Barbados Tridents were 40 for 1.
After the powerplay overs, hales was brilliantly caught by Sheldon Cottrell. Playing his first match of CPL 2019, Shakib AL Hasan showed his class and scored 38 off 25 balls. St Kitts and Nevis Patriots made a strong comeback to pick wickets of Shakib, Jonathan Carter, Jason Holder, Ashley Nurse, Jean-Paul Duminy to leave Barbados Tridents in tatters at 99 for 7. Raymon Reifer played a gem of an innings and bought back Barbados into the match with a brilliant 38 runs stand for the 8th wicket. Cottrell dismissed Walsh Jr in the 19th over.
With 11 runs needed off 6 balls, Reifer hit a six to bring the equation in favor of Barbados. In the next ball, Reifer was run out in an attempt to take the second run. With 2 runs required off 1 ball, Vasper Drakes got the wicket of Harry Gurney to help St Kitts and Nevis Patriots win a thriller by 1 run.
Shakib AL Hasan impressed for Barbados Tridents with 1 for 14 in his 4 overs. With the bat, the all-rounder scored 38 off 25 balls. Despite his efforts, the rest of Tridents batting line up failed to put up any resistance.
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots have so far 10 points with 5 wins and 5 losses. Guyana Amazon Warriors have already qualified for the playoffs winning all their matches so far.
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots 149 for 7 in 20 overs (Brooks 53, Harry Gurney 2/23, Walsh Junior 2/37) beat Barbados Tridents 148 in 20 overs ( Shakib AL Hasan 38, Carlos Braithwaite 3/30, Sheldon Cottrell 3/27) by 1 run.
