TAROUBA, Trinidad, CMC – Unbeaten Trinbago Knight Riders swept into tomorrow’s final of the Caribbean Premier League after ruthlessly disposing of an erratic Jamaica Tallawahs by nine wickets in the first semi-final here yesterday.
Akeal Hosein laid the platform for TKR’s 11th straight win when he snatched three for 14 with his left-arm spin to restrict Tallawahs to a meagre 107 for seven off their 20 overs.
Opener Lendl Simmons then stroked an unbeaten 54 and Tion Webster, 44 not out, as TKR chased down their target with five overs left.
TKR will know their opponents in the final when last year’s losing finalists, Guyana Amazon Warriors, take on St Lucia Zouks in yesterday’s second semi-final at 5:30 pm.
“Getting this far now is about the big picture which is on Thursday so for us, we still have to try and keep it level,” TKR captain Kieron Pollard said afterwards.
“We still have to try and enjoy our victory as we’ve been doing throughout the entire tournament but we still have to come in 48 hours and try to play a better game of cricket than we did today.”
Sent in, Tallawahs lost Jermaine Blackwood to the fourth ball of the match without a run on the board, bowled by Hosein missing a wild heave and when Glenn Phillips steered left-arm spinner Khary Pierre (2-29) to point in the next over, the innings was already in crisis at two for two.
Hosein then quickly knocked over the promoted Mujeeb-ur-Rahman (0) and Asif Ali (4) to leave Tallawahs tottering on 25 for four before Nkrumah Bonner top-scored with 41 and Captain Rovman Powell chipped in with 33, to salvage pride for their side.
Bonner struck five fours in a 42-ball knock while Powell counted a four and a six off 35 deliveries, as the pair combined in a 38-run fifth wicket stand.
Leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed broke the stand in the 12th over when he got Bonner to play on at 63 for five and with five runs added, Tallawahs suffered a game-changing blow when Andre Russell was controversially given out by umpire Nigel Duguid, caught at slip for two off off-spinner Sunil Narine.
A clearly upset Russell remonstrated angrily before storming off and TV replays confirmed the player’s reaction, showing the ball clearly striking only the pad before ballooning to Dwayne Bravo.
With their talisman gone, Tallawahs’ hopes of a competitive total also disappeared and it was left to Powell and Carlos Brathwaite (13 not out) to add 24 for the seventh wicket, before Powell holed out to deep mid off off Pierre at the end of the 18th over.
“We lost four wickets in the power-play and the stats show when you lose four wickets in the power-play you usually end on a [losing] note,” Powell lamented.
“There was a lot of inconsistency. The batters didn’t stand up all season and we asked that our international batters to bat most of the overs and we just didn’t do that.”
The target was never going to seriously test TKR but when off-spinner Mujeeb bowled Narine for four in the second over with 14 runs on the board, Tallawahs began to dream.
However, Simmons and Webster hastily dashed those hopes in a rollicking 97-run, unbroken second wicket stand.
Simmons faced 44 balls and struck half-dozen fours and two sixes while Webster’s 43-ball knock was laced with a six and half-dozen fours – the last two of which propelled TKR past their target.
