BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Barbados Tridents managed to complicate a simple run chase before pulling off a one-wicket victory in the last over, to send Antigua Hawksbills crashing to their fifth straight defeat of the Caribbean Premier League here yesterday.
In pursuit of a moderate 130, the hosts lost wickets regularly to find themselves tentatively placed at 120 for eight at the start of the final over and requiring ten to win.
Akeal Hosein and Rayad Emrit (5) cheekily stole three runs off the first ball sent down by left-arm spinner Brad Hogg, before the right-handed Emrit improvised superbly on a switch-hit to gather a boundary to third man.
He was run out off the third ball looking for a second run that never existed but Hosein punched the fourth ball to cover and sprinted two with Ravi Rampaul, to hand Tridents their second win in three days at Kensington Oval and their third overall in four outings.
Hawksbills, meanwhile, remained winless for the competition without a point, along with St Lucia Zouks who have played two games less.
For Tridents, left-handed Jonathan Carter top-scored with 35 but was the only player to pass 20 as seamer Carlos Brathwaite, with two for 17 from his four overs and left-arm pacer Sheldon Cottrell, with two for 20 from his quota, pegged the hosts back.
Captain Marlon Samuels had earlier carved out his second half-century of the tournament with an excellent 66 from 55 balls while David Hussey weighed in with 24.
But pacer Rampaul, voted Man-of-the-Match, snatched four for 15 from his four overs to cripple the Hawksbills innings and leave them with an inadequate 129 for eight off their allotted 20 overs.
What should have been a straightforward run chase turned difficult. Dwayne Smith failed to recapture the heights reached on Wednesday with his century, falling without scoring in the very first over but Shoaib Malik and Shane Dowrich, who both struck 18, put on 36 for the second wicket to repair the damage.
Shoaib top edged Brathwaite to Miguel Cummins at fine leg to fall in the sixth over before Dowrich drove seamer Ben Laughlin tamely to Danza Hyatt at short cover to perish in the ninth over.
Carter then fuelled the scoring in the middle overs, gathering five fours in 34 balls at the crease, as wickets fell around him.
He was eventually run out in the 15th over at 103 for five when he failed to beat Cottrell’s throw to wicketkeeper Devon Thomas as he scampered a second run with Jeevan Mendis (6), and Tridents then stuttered and stumbled through the final overs to take full points.
Earlier, Samuels proved the mainstay of the Hawksbills’ innings, after it tottered at 24 for four in the sixth over.
The right-hander cracked four fours and four sweetly-timed sixes, in a fifth wicket stand with Hussey that was worth 51.
