Knight Riders vs Kings - Qualifier 2 [8:00 PM]

TKR 194/4 (20)

SLK 138/8 (20)

Trinbago Knight Riders won by 56 runs

The four-time CPL champions, the Trinbago Knight Riders, are off to the final to face the Guyana Amazon Warriors! With their loss, the campaign of the defending champions, the St Lucia Kings, has come to an end. Generously flighted length ball turning in on the stumps, hangs back and plays off the back foot, defends cautiously on the track.

Moeed: "Having Akeal, Narine, Tariq in the same time...Ufff *fire*"

DaWolf: "With 2 overs to go, 4 sixes is playing 16. This match has been won by TKR for many reasons, but ability to hit sixes is right at the top of this list. "


11:35 pm It's safe to say the Trinbago Knight Riders have managed to outclass the St Lucia Kings in all three departments today. The Kings started lively, with Tim Seifert hitting a four and a six off Netravalkar's over. Seifert went rampant in the fourth over, striking four boundaries in a row. But Johnson Charles failed to keep up with Seifert's pace with the bat; runs kept on drying up. A crucial moment came when Seifert was dropped in the eighth over by the substitute fielder Clarke. The boundaries dried up, and Charles lost his wicket trying to break the shackles. Seifert then scored a fifty, but trying to accelerate, he got out in the over of Usman Tariq. Tariq struck twice, getting the wicket of Auguste in the very next ball. The required run rate kept increasing, moving over 15 in the middle overs, and the Kings' batters had no answers on how to accelerate the innings. They lost wickets in clusters and failed to build any partnerships. Usman Tariq was the star, picking up four wickets, and Sunil Narine bagged three, with both bowlers being responsible for the batting collapse.

Player of the Match, Nicholas Pooran: "First of all, I want to give Jesus all praise and thanks. I'm really happy that I can continue my form. I got an opportunity to bat in the Powerplay and capitalize, which is really important for us. We know that in games like this, we all have to step up as players, and today was my opportunity. I got a start, and I'm happy I could have contributed. I think I left a couple of runs out there, so I am a bit disappointed with myself. I know it was a really positive start from Munro, and he unfortunately got out on the last ball of the over. It could have easily gone for a six, and it was unlucky for him. But for us, it's all about assessing the conditions and playing good cricket. We had a good platform to obviously launch from later. [Alex Hales] He has been batting really well for us. He's not getting off to a flying start, but he's not losing his wicket. He's stitching that partnership together and bringing his experience, which is wonderful to see. A score of 194 is an intimidating total. If we can play a game like this in the finals, we will be really happy. We had to go through the tough road, which was the Eliminator, then the Qualifier 2, and then the finals. As a group, we are coming together nicely. The momentum is on our side. We are starting to get back into the right winning mindset."