Hello and welcome to Sportstar’s blog of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL 2020) match between Trinbago Knight Riders and Barbados Tridents.

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Trinbago Knight Riders win by 19 runs. That was a largely one-sided contest from the second half of Tridents’ chase as they struggled to up the scoring rate to themselves a good chance. Three wins in three for Knight Riders while Tridents suffers their 2nd defeat in three.

Tridents innings

Tridents 166/6 in 20 overs (Holder 33, Reifer 0): A wide single, a six and a four of the first two balls. Is there still life left in this? Seales makes a good comeback with a slower ball bouncer for a bye. 22 runs from 3 balls now. Single from the fourth ball. That should settle the nerves now for TKR. Nurse holes out to the deep mid-wicket fielder. Good comeback from the young bowler.

Tridents need 35 from the final over. Seales with the ball

Tridents 151/5 in 19 overs (Holder 32, Nurse 11): Bravo’s wait for his 500th T20 wicket will have to wait. Holder plunders 19 from the over with a couple of huge sixes down the ground. An expensive outing for Bravo instead conceding 46 runs from his four overs.

Tridents 132/5 in 18 overs (Holder 15, Nurse 9): Ali Khan with another excellent over as Holder struggling to put bat on ball. It’s been 15 balls since Tridents scored their last boundary.

Surely that should be the end of Tridents’ challenge in the chase?

Tridents 125/5 in 17 overs (Holder 14, Nurse 4): Bravo comes back strong at the death here as Holder and Nurse struggle to get power behind to find the required boundaries.

Could the Tridents have thrown in Rashid Khan instead?

Tridents 120/5 in 16 overs (Holder 13, Nurse 0): Holder using his power to good effect as eh gets underneath the length delivery from Narine. A big six to the deep square-leg boundary. WICKET! Hope goes for the slog sweep but ends up top-edging it behind for a catch. Ashley Nurse is the new batsman.

Narine on for his final over. His figures read 3-0-8-0…

Tridents 110/4 in 15 overs (Hope 36, Holder 5): Timber! Ali Khan flattens Carter’s leg stump as the batsman is beaten for pace. Khan enjoyed that one. Jason Holder is in and he is off the mark by squeezing a yorker length to the fence behind square.

Ali Khan is back for his third over.

87 runs needed from 36 balls

Tridents 99/3 in 14 overs (Hope 31, Carter 8): Carter misses his slog sweep and the ball bounces into the hands of Bravo in the slips. Narine and TKR are confident that it’s off the glove but the umpire removes unmoved. TKR players aren’t happy. Replay shows there was no bat.

Tridents 97/3 in 13 overs (Hope 30, Carter 8): Bravo back for his second over. Eight runs from the over thanks to Carter’s reverse sweep to a full length delivery which is placed between the ‘keeper and the short third man fielder.

Tridents 89/3 in 12 overs (Hope 29, Carter 1): Slog sweep from Hope and he makes a good connection to the full delivery from Fawad. The ball sails over the deep mid-wicket boundary.

Tridents 82/3 in 11 overs (Hope 22, Carter 1): Poor from Mayers as he picks out Darren Bravo straight at deep mid-wicket. It was a short ball from Pierre and Mayers doesn’t get his placement right with his pull shot. Carter is the new batsman. Hope plays an inside out cover drive to the boundary to kick start his innings here.

111 runs needed in 60 balls

Tridents 75/2 in 10 overs (Hope 16, Mayers 1): Anderson will have to depart the stage after he is caught short of his crease. The New Zealander wants the single but is sent back by Hope. Seales affects the direct hit at the non-striker’s end and Anderson’s poor start to the CPL continues. Kyle Mayers joins Hope in the middle.

Tridents 72/1 in 9 overs (Hope 15, Anderson 1): Pierre returns to the attack with a tidy over to keep the pressure up in Tridents’ chase.

Corey Anderson is in at No. 3

Tridents 68/1 in 8 overs (Hope 12): 50 for Charles! … and gone. Fawad tosses up a googly which keeps straight and Charles misses he line completely with his slog sweep. His off-stump is pegged back.

Fawad Ahmed into the attack.

Tridents 64/0 in 7 overs (Charles 49, Hope 11): Ali keeps it full and on fourth-fifth stump channel, not allowing Charles and Hope to get underneath to loosen their arms. The required rate creeps up over 9 again

Ali Khan again.

Tridents 59/0 in 6 overs (Charles 46, Hope 9): Narine again provides some much0needed respite for TKR. End of the powerplay overs.

Tridents 56/0 in 5 overs (Charles 45, Hope 8): He nearly gets the breakthrough. Slower ball and Charles mistimes it high into the air but Darren Bravo couldn’t hold on to the catch on the run. Taht would have been his 500th T20 wicket but the wait continues now. He rubs salt into the wounds next ball by smacking a six into the deep mid-wicket region. Bravo drags it short and to the leg and Charles helps it behind for another four as the short fine leg fielder fails to chase the ball down.

Dwayne Bravo into the attack.

Tridents 41/0 in 4 overs (Charles 33, Hope 7): He immediately applies the break in the Tridents’ innings. Just four from the over.

Narine into the attack.

Tridents 37/0 in 3 overs (Charles 30, Hope 7): Seales replaces Ali and he is deposited behind deep square for a six with just a flick of his wrist. Charles waits on the short and he tonks it to the deep mid-wicket where Munro lets it slip between his hands for a six! Deft touch the next ball and he rolls his hands over a slower short ball to the leg side for a four.

Tridents 17/0 in 2 overs (Charles 11, Hope 6): Left-arm spinner Pierre shares the new ball and he bowls it full and on the leg to the liking of Charles. He helps him to two boundaries.

Tridents 9/0 in 1 over (Charles 3, Hope 6): Hope with a superb cover drive for four to get off the mark.

Johnson Charles and Shai hope are out in the middle for Barbados. Ali Khan with the new ball.

When Trinbago comes out to defend the total, Dwayne Bravo requires just one wicket to become the first bowler to reach 500 T20 wickets.

Trinbago innings

Trinbago 185/3 in 20 overs (DM Bravo 54, Pollard 41): Bravo finishes with a flourish and he reaches his fifty with a thunderous pull shot for a six! These two have put on 98 runs in 42 balls as they provide the charge needed for TKR after a sedate first half of the innings.

Trinbago 172/3 in 19 overs (DM Bravo 43, Pollard 39): Short ball from Holder and Pollard is waiting with an open stance and nails it over the deep mid-wicket boundary with disdain. Bravo brings up 3000 T20 runs by smashing a straight delivery over Holder’s head for a four.

Partnership worth 68 runs from 30 balls

Trinbago 155/3 in 18 overs (DM Bravo 36, Pollard 32): Bravo welcomes Reifer back into the attack by smashing a full toss for a six into the deep mid-wicket region. The 50-run partnrship is up between the pair. Pollard takes over now and he crunches a boundary along the ground through the covers. He ends the over with another one-handed six. 20 runs from the over.

Trinbago 135/3 in 17 overs (DM Bravo 29, Pollard 20): Santner is introduced into the attack and Bravo gets stuck into him immediately. He takes 10 from the first two deliveries with a four and a six. Oh my… Santner drags it wide, urging Pollard to chase it and the batsman obliges by lifting it way past the long off fielder for a six with just one-hand!

Trinbago 116/3 in 16 overs (DM Bravo 18, Pollard 12): Bravo launches Rashid with the spin over the deep mid wicket boundary for a six but TKR isn’t capitalising on playing out dot balls. Just 8 runs from the over.

Trinbago 108/3 in 15 overs (DM Bravo 11, Pollard 11): Pollard gets going by depositing Hayden Walsh Jr over long on for a huge six. 

Trinbago 99/3 in 14 overs (DM Bravo 11, Pollard 2): Rashid drags one down the leg for five wides that helps Knight Riders’ cause.

TKR skipper Pollard is the new batsman.

Trinbago 87/3 in 13 overs (DM Bravo 4): Munro reverse sweeps to hit Nurse with the spin behind square for a four. Nurse bowls it short next ball and Munro rocks back to hit over the cover fielder for another four. He brings up his fifty in just 29 balls. Nurse has the last laugh though. Munro dances down the track and smashes it high and into the hands of Rashid.

Trinbago 76/2 in 12 overs (DM Bravo 4, Munro 41): A welcome boundary for Trinbago and Munro as he crunches a boundary through the covers region.

Trinbago 69/2 in 11 overs (DM Bravo 2, Munro 36): Another tidy over from Nurse, just 4 runs of it. He has bowled 9 dot balls in his 3 overs.

Trinbago 65/2 in 10 overs (DM Bravo 1, Munro 34): That’s the end of Narine. Reifer bowls the yorker length and Narine swings and misses to see his stumps uprooted. Darren Bravo joins Munro.

Trinbago 58/1 in 9 overs (Narine 8, Munro 28): Narine is still finding it tough to cut loose against the spin of Nurse. He is batting on 8 off 15 balls.

Trinbago 54/1 in 8 overs (Narine 6, Munro 26): Munro is looking to bring out the slow sweep to Rashid and he makes a clean connection after a couple of swings and misses. He launches it behind square for a six. Rashid still manages five dot balls from the over and pulls it back well.

Rashid Khan is introduced into the attack.

Trinbago 47/1 in 7 overs (Narine 6, Munro 20): Some turn and bounce for Ashley Nurse as he concedes just two singles from his first over.

Trinbago 45/1 in 6 overs (Narine 5, Munro 19): Munro plunders 18 runs form the over of Mayers as Knight Riders finish strongly in the powerplay.

Trinbago 27/1 in 5 overs (Narine 5, Munro 1): Holder continues. Narine finally gets off the mark with a single to mid-on. WICKET! After hammering a six over backward square-leg, Simmons is out caught the very next ball. Early breakthrough for the Tridents, thanks to Holder. Colin Munro is the new man in. Meanwhile, Narine has punished a short and wide delivery, swinging at it and the thick edge carries it to third-man for four.

Trinbago 15/0 in 4 overs (Narine 0, Simmons 15): Mayers to continue. A loud shout for lbw first ball, but Simmons is safe. He hits the next ball to deep extra cover for four. It was a full delivery; Simmons saw the width on offer and had a go at it. Trinbago starting to open up. Six runs from that over.

Trinbago 9/0 in 3 overs (Narine 0, Simmons 9): At long last, Simmons gets one away: a length ball on stumps from Holder and Simmons clobbers it over mid-on for four. Narine yet to get off the mark.

Trinbago 2/0 in 2 overs (Narine 0, Simmons 2): Kyle Mayers, right-arm medium, comes into the attack. Simmons takes a single and gets off strike. Narine plays out four dots. Two back-to-back good overs for the Tridents.

Trinbago 1/0 in 1 overs (Narine 0, Simmons 1): A good start with the ball from Jason Holder. Just a one run off it in the end. Watch out for Narine. How long before he starts flexing his muscles?

TOSS: Barbados’ Jason Holder wins the toss and elects to field first.

UPDATE: No rain and play is set to start at 8 pm (10.30 local time). Toss at 7.45 pm.

UPDATE: Toss delayed. Looks like we will have a delayed start at the the Brian Lara Cricket Academy. “It is raining,” the CPL Twitter account says. “We’ll have further updates when we know more.”

Check out our latest Magazine ebook by clicking here.

The Caribbean Premier League (CPL) will be the world’s first major T20 league to be held since the Covid-19 pandemic brought international and domestic cricket to a standstill, and will take place in Trinidad & Tobago.

The CPL will be televised live on Star Sports 1 & 1 HD, Star Sports 2 & 2 HD, Star Sports 1 Hindi and 1 Hindi HD.