New boys Patriots stun champions Tridents!

Jun 28, 2015 Sports

CPL – The final 2015 Hero Caribbean Premier League match in Barbados produced a last-ball thriller as the new boys St Kitts & Nevis Patriots stunned defending champions Barbados Tridents to win their first ever CPL game!

Patriots players celebrate their last ball triumph. (CPL)

A sensational contest went down to the final ball, with the Tridents – who had won all three of their previous games in the 2015 CPL – needing three to win and two to tie, but Navin Stewart could only manage a single off Orlando Peters, who held his nerve.
Tridents captain Kieron Pollard was left frustrated at the other end, run out off the final ball going for a second that was never there to end a brilliant innings of 82 from 58 balls, including 5 sixes.
It had appeared as though the Patriots, put in to bat by Pollard, had not quite made enough runs in their innings, reaching 143-8 from their 20 overs with several batsmen getting themselves in but no-one going on to make a big score.
Martin Guptill hit two enormous early sixes but the Tridents and their well-drilled attack were always in charge and slightly behind the rate they would have liked, though Shahid Afridi and Carlos Brathwaite also hit two late maximums apiece to get them to a more defendable target.
And the Tridents, who usually have such a solid top order, started shambolically as Sohail Tanvir got rid of Dilshan Munaweera and the on-fire Sheldon Cottrell ran riot, sending off both Dwayne Smith and Jonathan Carter in the space of three balls with his famous ‘salute’.
Pollard and Shoaib Malik started to piece their innings together and they put on 93 runs, Malik smashing his Pakistan team-mate Afridi for a huge six before ‘Boom Boom’ took his revenge, getting his mate stumped after dancing down the track.
It went to the wire, and though Pollard clubbed some gigantic blows, it wasn’t quite enough as the new boys clung on and earned their first victory in the competition before the event moves to St Kitts next week!