Caption: Lights out in 19.1 overs between Trinbago Knight Riders and Barbados Royals at Providence Stadium on Tuesday. Photo: CPL via Getty Images
Barbados Royals 64-1 in 4.2 overs (David Miller 50 not out) beat Trinbago Knight Riders 168-3 in 19.1 overs (Nicholas Pooran 91 not out, Jason Roy 25, Andre Russell 20 not out, Kieron Pollard 17) by seven wickets due to Duckworth/Lewis/Stern system in Eliminator 1
THE Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) were 168 for three in 19.1 overs in the first eliminator of the 2024 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) against the Barbados Royals when two of the lighting towers went off at Providence.
One came back on shortly, but the other took some time allowing the Duckworth/Lewis/Stern system to be called into play. It meant that not only was Nicholas Pooran stranded on 91, unable to have a chance of completing back-to-back centuries, the Barbados Royals had to get 60 from five overs.
The Royals seemed minutes away from elimination againstTKR, but somehow miraculously advanced to the second qualifier with a nine-wicket win on Monday. If there was no more play TKR would have qualified by virtue of finishing ahead of Barbados in the group stage.
Faulty floodlights at the Providence Stadium, which delayed play for over two hours, had looked set to send TKR through to the next round based on the fact that they finished in third position at the end of the preliminary rounds, ahead of the fourth-placed Royals.
But with the match minutes away from being called off, the lights returned, setting the stage for David Miller’s brilliant, unbeaten half century to win the match for the Royals.
Set a revised target of 60 in five overs after the Knight Riders’ innings ended on 168 for three from 19.1 overs, Player-of-the-Match Miller blasted 50 from just 17 balls to propel the Royals to 64 for one with four balls to spare.
It marked a thrilling end to a contest, although the Knight Riders will no doubt feel hard done by the result.
With fast runs needed, Royals’ captain Rovman Powell promoted himself to opener along with Quinton de Kock.
But after pulling Sunil Narine for four off the second ball of the first over, Narine produced a beautiful delivery that deceived de Kock and rattled his stumps to leave the score five for one.
His departure brought Miller to the crease, and he wasted little time in hitting the second ball he faced from Narine over midwicket for six.
Pacer Chris Jordan conceded just two runs from his first three deliveries, but Miller cut him over point for a boundary and Powell joined in by flicking him over deep midwicket for six to end the over.
Narine’s second over and third of the innings went for just nine, with Miller hitting him for a solitary six over long on, as Royals found themselves 35 for one after three overs.
TKR captain Kieron Pollard’s decision to stick with Jordan, however proved to be a decisive error.
Miller sent his third delivery of the fourth over extra cover for four, the next ball was dispatched through midwicket for another boundary and the fifth ball was launched over long on for six, as the Royals took 17 runs from the penultimate over.
Needing eight runs for victory from the final over bowled by pacer Terrance Hinds, Miller wasted little time in clobbering Hinds’ first ball over midwicket for six, before hitting him over extra cover for another maximum to end the match and bring up his 50.
In all he struck five sixes and three fours, while Powell was unbeaten on nine.
Miller’s blockbuster innings erased the efforts of the Knight Riders’ Nicholas Pooran, who continued his devastating form in the CPL with an unbeaten 91 from 60 balls.
He formed two half-century partnerships with Jason Roy and Andre Russell and would have been eyeing a record second consecutive century had it not been for the Knight Riders’ innings being cut short by the dysfunctional lights.
Pooran added 52 with Roy who made 25 and then shared an unbroken 67-run partnership with Russell, who scored an unbeaten 20 from 18 balls.
Despite losing only three wickets the Knight Riders were unable to shift gears and would have been disappointed not to post a bigger total.
In a joint statement, the Guyana Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) confirmed the loss of three of the six floodlights at the National Stadium on Tuesday evening.
The release stated, “All CPL matches at the Providence Stadium, Guyana was (sic) successfully powered from independent Generating Sets located in the National Stadium and not by GPL grid. GPL has been on standby at all matches to render technical assistance to the Stadium at all times.”
It stated, “During the nineteenth over, three (3) floodlights that were powered by an independent generator lost power, thus causing a disruption to the match. The GPL technical team on standby immediately began rendering assistance and restored power to two of three floodlights on the same circuit.
“The Stadium’s Technical staff and GPL worked assiduously to restore power to the third floodlight which had a technical fault with the underground cable feeding power to that Floodlight, a substitute cable was installed quicky to have this floodlight operational.
“This was achieved around 10.51 pm. The technical team remedied the problem and the game resumed. Additional technical assessment will be done immediately after the game to avoid any reoccurrence.” (Information from CMC was used in this article)
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