Darren Bravo and Brendon McCullum swatted the Trinbago Knightriders to the most improbable victory over the St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots, in the twenty-third game of the current CPL season, in Basseterre, St. Kitts last evening.
The attendees and the fans glued to their television sets will remember this game for a long time, as the Knightriders won by eight wickets with four balls to spare.
Earlier, the fans first had to endure a power outage from 18:25hrs to 19:25hrs local time which caused the game to be reduced to an 18 overs, only for the rains to arrive shortly after the resumption, leading to another delay of almost 45 minutes, further reducing the contest to 13 overs per innings. Rain again at 21:43hrs, after 3.1 overs of the TKR innings, led to the introduction of the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method, which reduced the contest even further, to a six over affair, and setting the Knightriders a target of 86.
When play resumed, only 17 balls remained for the TKR innings and 52 were required. Darren Bravo was the new batsman, as Colin Munro had been bowled by Samuel Badree with the first ball of the fourth over, just as the rain arrived. Bravo promptly greeted Badree with a six over long on, as the next delivery was dispatched over widish long on for another six and immediately followed by a pull over mid-on for another Six. The fifth ball produced a dot in the scorecard, followed by a single off the final delivery.
Skipper Chris Gayle then asked Mohammad Nabi to deliver his right-arm of breaks for the crucial penultimate over, with 33 required off 12 balls. The first delivery produced no runs while the second was dispatched over the long on boundary for Bravo’s fourth six. A single of the third ball gave McCullum the strike, who quickly added to the Patriots’ woes, by swatting another six, then a boundary, and finally another six which sailed out of the ground.
The contest had been decided. Ten runs required off the last over. Darren Bravo, Man of the Match, wasted no time in putting the Patriots out of their disbelief by swatting the first two deliveries for his fifth and sixth sixes, to finish on 38 off 10 balls. McCullum, his partner of destruction, had 40 to his name, from 14 deliveries, inclusive of five boundaries and three maximums.
The shell shocked Patriots had looked like clear winners all the way, after they had racked up the very credible score of 162 for 3, in their innings. Gayle continued his fine run of form with an impressive knock of 93 off 47 balls, five boundaries and eight maximums. He received excellent support from Evin Lewis, whose 39 included four sixes, and Shamarh Brooks, 20, with whom, he added 103 of 47 balls.
It was the seventh win in eight matches for the TKR, as the disappointed Patriots could not believe that they had lost the top of the points’ table clash which would have seen their name replace the Knightriders as the new leader.
