The Independent Voice of West Indies Cricket

Message Board Archives

HEADLINE: Allen leads Patriots to thrilling two wicket Victory

 
CaribbeanCricket.com 2018-09-05 04:54:49 

Fabian Allen powered St Kitts & Nevis Patriots to a thrilling two-wicket victory with two balls to spare that takes them temporarily to the top of the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) while inflicting a sixth straight defeat on the Barbados Tridents.

It looked like the Tridents were finally going to return to winning ways back on the road after five defeats at home when they reduced the Patriots to 92/6 in pursuit of 169 for victory, and again when Allen lost the strike in the closing overs and was left needing 17 from the final six balls.

But Allen had the answers, smashing the first two balls of Dominic Drakes’ closing over for sixes to take the target down to a far simpler five from four. The third ball bounced over the mid-wicket boundary and a scampered leg-bye finished the job. Allen ended on a sparkling unbeaten 64 from 34 as the Patriots completed a first successful 150-plus Hero CPL run-chase after seven previous failures.

The Patriots’ stay atop the table is certain to be a short one; they have now completed their 10 group games while the three teams one point below them all still have games to play against each other. Nevertheless, a winning farewell to their fans at Warner Park and a successful chase from such a difficult position will give the Patriots confidence heading into the playoffs.

They will hope to improve their death bowling, though, after allowing the Tridents to recover from 115/5 at the start of the 17th over to reach a far more competitive 168/5.

The Patriots’ pursuit of that total got off to a bad start. Mohammad Irfan, who bowled a record-breaking spell of 4-3-1-2 in the reverse fixture, was a thorn in the Patriots’ side again here with three wickets in the Power Play to put the home side on the back foot.


Full Story