Defending champs remain unbeaten in 2015 CPL campaign
T&T Express
Tridents melt Steel
The Barbados Tridents made it three wins in three as they brushed aside the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel by eight wickets in the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) match at Kensington, Oval, Barbados, on Thursday night.
The Red Steel never recovered after losing four early wickets inside the first six overs as they stumbled to 95 for nine in the face of some superb bowling combined with some excellent fielding from a rampant Tridents side, who have already set the early pace in pursuit of automatic qualification for the Hero CPL final.
The undefeated Tridents began brilliantly as Jason Holder produced a fantastic spell of quick and aggressive bowling to leave the Red Steel in serious trouble inside their batting powerplay.
Holder dismissed Cameron Delport, Darren Bravo and Kamran Akmal and all three batsman struggled to cope with the extra bounce that Barbados all-rounder extracted on his home turf.
Ravi Rampaul also chipped in with a wicket inside the first six overs, dismissing South African legend Jacques Kallis, who mistimed a hook shot to lose his wicket for just one run.
Things only got worse for the Red Steel when William Perkins took off for a single only for Jason Mohammed not to respond to his call. He scampered back to the bowlers end but not quick enough to prevent him being run out by a yard. At the end of the Powerplay the Red Steel were 26 for five.
After a brief rain delay, Red Steel skipper Dwayne Bravo and Jason Mohammed put on 46 runs at a run a ball to help rebuild the innings however the stand was broken when Dwayne Bravo drilled the ball into the hands of Navin Stewart in the covers having made 30 off 28 balls.
Mohammed didn’t last much longer, dismissed in the very next over. He had made 20 off 27 balls when he hooked Kieron Pollard to the waiting hands of Dwayne Smith.
Johan Botha looked to get the side up over 100 while attempting to bat out the overs. He made it to 14 off 22 balls before he was run out.
The Tridents made an absolute mockery of the target as Smith and Dilshan Munaweera found the boundary with ease in an opening stand of 72 off just 56 balls.
The Red Steel’s lack of pace options was exposed early on as none of their seamers could find the bounce that had so troubled their top order in the first innings.
The Red Steel opened the bowling with Samuel Badree’s legspin and Munaweera was brutally dismissive as he drove them down the ground for two fours and a six in one over.
While Munaweera was playing lovely drives Smith was pulling and hooking anything that was dropped short. The Red Steel had a chance to end this opening stand but Kallis dropped Munaweera when the Sri Lankan was on 25. Even if that had been taken the Tridents were already halfway to their victory target with 14 overs to go.
Munaweera finished on 39 and Smith made 33 to demolish their opponents.
Although the Tridents lost both openers in successive deliveries to the bowling of Sulieman Benn they still progressed towards victory serenely as they made this chase look incredibly straightforward.
The Tridents face the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in the final home game at Kensington Oval from 4 p.m. today while the Red Steel play their next game at Warner Part in St Kitts next Saturday against the Guyana Amazon Warriors.
SCOREBOARD
Tridents vs Red Steel
RED STEEL Inns
J Kallis c Holder b Rampaul 1
C Delport c Smith b Holder 0
W Perkins run out 13
+Kamran Akmal c Mendis b Holder 1
DM Bravo c Stewart b Holder 0
J Mohammed c Smith b Pollard 20
*DJ Bravo c Stewart b Mendis 30
J Botha run out 14
K Cooper c Pollard b Peterson 5
S Badree not out 8
S Benn not out 2
Extras (w1) 1
TOTAL (9 wkts, 20 overs) 95
Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Delport), 2-2 (Kallis), 3-3 (Kamran Akmal), 4-3 (DM Bravo), 5-20 (Perkins), 6-66 (DJ Bravo, 13.1), 7-70 (Mohammed), 8-80 (Cooper), 9-93 (Botha)
BOWLING: Holder 4-1-11-3 (w1), Rampaul 4-0-24-1, Peterson 4-0-20-1, Emrit 2-0-17-0, Pollard 4-0-16-1, Mendis 2-0-7-1.
TRIDENTS Inns
D Smith c Botha b Benn 33
D Munaweera c Mohammed b Benn 39
Shoaib Malik not out 10
+J Carter not out 15
Extras (w1) 1
TOTAL (2 wkts, 13.1 overs) 98
Did not bat: *K Pollard, J Holder, J Mendis, N Stewart, R Peterson, R Emrit, R Rampaul
Fall of wickets: 1-73 (Munaweera), 2-73 (Smith)
BOWLING: Badree 2-0-24-0, Cooper 2-0-12-0, Kallis 4-0-22-0, DJ Bravo 2-0-16-0 (w1), Benn 3.1-0-24-2.
Toss: T&T Red Steel.
Result: Barbados Tridents won by eight wickets.
Points: Barbados Tridents 2, T&T Red Steel 0.
Man-of-the-Match: Jason Holder.
Umpires: M Martell, P Nero; TV – N Duguid.