MOHALI, India, CMC – Barbados Tridents produced a limp all-round effort to crash out of the Champions League Twenty20, after going down by six wickets to Hobart Hurricanes here yesterday.
Sent in at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Tridents tumbled to 113 all out off 19.4 overs, with only Jonathan Carter showing any enterprise with a top score of 42.
He faced 34 balls and struck three fours and two sixes, and was the only batsman to pass 20 and one of four to reach double figures.
Carter, who hit a hundred in the last match, was the last of leg-spinner Xavier Doherty’s four wickets for 27 runs while seamers Ben Hilfenhaus (2-14) and Doug Bollinger (2-27) supported with two wickets apiece.
When they bowled, Tridents were again loose in the field, squandering three chances as Hurricanes rode their luck en route to their target reached in the 19th over.
Rope sprang eternal at 32 for two in the seventh over after Ben Dunk (0) and Aiden Blizzard (21) fell early but Shoaib Malik, who ironically represented Tridents during the recent Caribbean Premier League, saw Hurricanes home with a typically responsible, unbeaten 39 not out from 35 balls.
He put on 47 for the fifth wicket with Jonathan Wells who played freely for an unbeaten 23 off just 17 balls, a partnership that snuffed any hope of a Tridents revival.
Left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein picked up two for 25 from four economical overs.
The defeat kept Tridents winless from their three outings and eliminated them from the competition, with a match still to play in Pool B.
Needing a win to stay alive, Tridents started badly when Neil McKenzie top-edged a pull behind off Bollinger without scoring at six for one in the second over and Raymon Reifer followed for six with the score on 26, top-edging another pull at Hilfenhaus to the keeper.
Opener Dilshan Munaweera, who scored 18 from 16 balls, had started positively and looked to be building a decent innings. He was off the mark with a wristy stroke through point for four and followed up with three more fours off Bollinger’s second over, the fourth of the innings which went for 12 runs.
However, his enterprise got the better of him and he holed out to square leg the delivery following Reifer’s demise, to leave Tridents 26 for three.
For the second straight match, Carter then carried the Tridents on his back admirably. He managed just four runs from his first nine deliveries before finding his stride with a streaky boundary off Shoaib and then clearing the ropes at mid-wicket off the same bowler a few overs later.
He cleared long-on with Doherty in the next over for his second six before smashing two successive boundaries off Bollinger in the next over – the first flying to the straight boundary and the second whipped through square leg.
In the interim, he lost James Franklin for 12 bowled by Doherty after missing a prod; Jason Holder for five holing out to long on in Doherty’s next over, Hosein for 12, taken at long on off Bollinger and Ashley Nurse, lbw for one after missing a sweep at Doherty off the first ball of the 14th over.
Three balls later, Carter perished and with him Tridents hopes of a competitive score, as the left-hander swept Doherty to short fine leg.
In reply, Hurricanes lost Dunk without scoring when he drove the fourth ball of the innings from seamer Kyle Mayers to short over where McKenzie took a sharp chance with one run on the board.
Blizzard, who faced 24 balls and struck three fours, was then put down twice – first by McKenzie at slip off seamer Ravi Rampaul in the second over and then by Reifer at square leg in Rampaul’s next over.
However, he eventually cut the first ball of off-spinner Munaweera’s opening spell to McKenzie at short third man to depart in the seventh over.
Tim Paine, who scored 18, then got a life on seven when he edged one down the leg-side off off-spinner Ashley Nurse only for wicketkeeper Carter to miss the difficult chance. Paine also lost his balance and slipped out of his crease but Carter failed to gather to effect the run out.
Hosein accounted for Paine and then Travis Birt for nine but Shoaib took control of the innings to deal his former teammates heartbreak.
