BASSETERRE, St Kitts, CMC – Left-hander Nicholas Pooran was the catalyst as Trinbago Knight Riders finally kick-started their Caribbean Premier League campaign with an emphatic six-wicket victory over beleaguered St Kitts and Nevis Patriots here late Sunday.
Asked to chase 181 on a batting paradise of a pitch at Warner Park, TKR made light work of the target, getting over the line with 17 balls to spare.
Pooran, dismissed without scoring in his previous innings against St Lucia Kings, top-scored with 61 from 32 balls to earn Man-of-the-Match honours, while captain Kieron Pollard struck a 16-ball unbeaten 37 and Lorcan Tucker, 36 from 31 deliveries.
Sherfane Rutherford, in his first game as Patriots captain after replacing Evin Lewis, belted an unbeaten 62 from 38 balls to help rally Patriots from 86 for four in the 12th over to 178 for five off their allotted 20 overs.
Opener Andre Fletcher (32) and Corbin Bosch (30) also chipped in but off-spinner Sunil Narine (3-24) and veteran medium pacer Dwayne Bravo (2-43) struck critical blows to keep the run-scoring in check.
“I think [my knock] was satisfying. I told myself to take the game deep because I know I’m a player that can always make up at the back end,” Rutherford said.
“I did it well but I still think we were short a few runs. We lost wickets at some crucial times.
“It’s another game, another loss. We have to just try and regroup and come again.”
Patriots lie bottom of the pile with four defeats from six outings, their only two points coming from two rained off encounters.
TKR, meanwhile, notched their first win to move into fourth on three points, the victory coming against the backdrop of a stuttering start to their campaign which saw a no-result and a defeat to Kings.
“Obviously [this win] is very satisfying. They got off to a flyer in the first couple overs which we expected – small ground, two guys out and Fletcher and Evin we expected them to go hard,” Pollard said.
“But we know once we got a couple wickets and the field was spread, we were able to work our plans.”
Fletcher blasted three fours and three sixes in a 17-ball cameo, as he dominated a 43-run opening stand with the left-handed Lewis who made just 10 before depositing the first delivery of Bravo’s spell into the hands of deep square.
When Fletcher was cleaned up by a slower ball in the same over, Patriots were 45 for two but key partnerships helped them recover.
First, Joshua Da Silva (18) and Jyd Goolie (11) put on 28 for the third before Rutherford arrived in the 10th over to post 66 for the fifth wicket with Bosch, and a further 26 in an unbroken sixth wicket partnership with Dominic Drakes (six not out).
All told, the left-handed Rutherford struck four fours and five sixes, reaching his half-century in the final over when he plundered 18 runs off Bravo.
Patriots were in the contest when both TKR openers Chadwick Walton(6) and Martin Guptill (7) perished cheaply but Pooran helped take the game away, lashing five fours and four sixes to dominate a 73-run, third wicket stand with Tucker.
Pooran eventually nicked a wide one from seamer Bosch (3-34) but Pollard saw his side home first in a 43-run, fourth wicket stand with Tucker and then in an unbroken 32-run fifth wicket partnership with Andre Russell, whose unbeaten 23 needed only eight deliveries and included a brace of fours and sixes.