Hero CPL T20 Final…Cooper fires TKR to second title with thrilling win against Patriots  

Sep 11, 2017 Sports

---

By Sean Devers in Trinidad in association with Noble House Seafoods, Vnet Communications and Elegance Jewellery &

Pawn Shop

A partisan capacity crowd produced a sea of red at the Brain Lara Academy and partied all morning to pulsating Soca at the Machel Montano concert to celebrate Trinbago Knight Riders’ thrilling win over St Kitts and Nevis Patriots by three wickets in the wee hours of Sunday morning to lift their second Hero CPL T20 title and the US$ 250,000 winner’s cheque.
TKR, led by an unfinished 46-run stand between Man-of-the-Match Kevon Cooper and Denish Ramdin, reached 136-7 with an over to spare replying to Patriots’ 135-6. Cooper blasted 29 from 14 balls with two fours and two sixes while Ramdin made 26 from 31 balls after Colin Munro hammered three sixes in a 23-ball 29 as Mohammed Hafeez (2-19), Sheldon Cottrell (2-21) and Tabraiz Shamsi (2-20) took two wickets each in a losing cause.
Carlos Braithwaite’ unbeaten 30 from 25 balls with two fours, Jonathon Carter (21), Brandon King (19), Mohammed Nabi (18), Devon Thomas (17) and Evin Lewis (16) chipped in for the Patriots as 21 runs came off the last over bowled by Skipper Dwayne Bravo. Copper took 2-12 and Jevon Searles 2-29.
TKR won the toss and elected to field after a minute’s silence was observed for those in the Leeward Islands affected by Hurricane Irma, Guyanese Ronsford Beaton produced a brilliant first over to Chris Gayle before he was taken at cover off Jevon Searles for one in the second over.
With the score on 1-1 after one ball in the second over Lewis was joined by Mohammed Hafeez (5) who miss-timed a drive to mid-off as the impressive Searles struck for the second time at 11-2 in the fourth over to spark Carnival-like celebrations from a crowd of over 15,000.
Lewis stroked Australian pacer Daniel Christian for a boundary while King hit Searles for a four and six and after the six power-play overs Patriots were 30-2. Christian was driven gloriously past cover for four by the left-handed Lewis as Sunil Narine was introduced in the eighth over and trapped Lewis LBW for a run-a-ball 16 with two fours and the fans in the stands erupted in unadulterated joy. With the top Patriots run scorers gone, TKR were on fire in the own backyard.
With the score on 45-3 after 10 overs, Patriots’ lowest score at the half-way stage, Carter and King were aiming to orchestrate ‘operation rebuild’ to bring Patriots back into the fray. But that was not to be as King (19) was LBW to Cooper at 45-4 to bring Thomas to the crease.
Spinner Yasir Shah was hammered for a boundary by Thomas who dumped Cooper back over his head for six before the pacer had the last laugh when he removed the Antiguan for a cameo 17 from nine balls at 65-5.

Narine bowled a mesmerising spell; 18 dot balls in four overs. Braithwaite smashed Beaton who bowled with genuine pace, for a four and a six as the pacer was troubled by an ankle injury. Carter hit Beaton for his first boundary in 28 balls but despite his painful ankle, the left-hander was bowled when he missed a big swing next ball at 114-6 to end the 49-run stand. Nabi then clobbered Bravo for two sixes and a four in the last over to finish unbeaten on 18 from five balls.
RTK began their reply they were soon 12-2 after Narine (3) who continued to fail as opener, was caught and bowled by Sheldon Cottrell, who bowled Dwayne Bravo for a duck a run later.
The inform Munro dumped Nabi for three sixes in an over which cost 19 before he hit Hafeez to long-on at 48-3 in the seventh over as Hamza Tariq joined Darren Bravo who was LBW to Hafeez for one as TKR slipped to 54-4.
Tariq (18) was well caught by King at short cover at 63-5 in 10.3 overs while Christian (8) was run out three runs later to silence the raucous crowd but with the level headed Ramdin still there TKR were still in the ascendency.
Searles survived a very confident LBW shout from Shamsi who soon removed him at 90-7 with 46 to get from 34 balls and the required rate climbed with every dot ball bowled. Cooper hit the last ball of the 18th over from Cottrell for six leaving 22 to get from 12 balls as Ben Hilfenhaus was asked to bowl the penultimate over.
Hilfenhaus started with two wides before Cooper spanked an above the waist high full toss for six and struck the free hit for four before Cooper pulled him for four more and the crowd went wild as 22 runs came from the over as TKR, without their leading batsman Brendon McCullum and ace spinner Shadab Khan, avenged their loss to Patriots last Wednesday in the play-off.

SCOREBOARD
Knight Riders vs Patriots – Final
PATRIOTS (maximum 20 overs)
*C Gayle c Yasir Shah b Searles 1
E Lewis lbw b Narine 16
Mohammad Hafeez c Christian b Searles 5
B King lbw b Cooper 19
J Carter b Beaton 21
+D Thomas c Yasir Shah b Cooper 17
C Brathwaite not out 30
Mohammad Nabi not out 18
Extras (b2, lb3, w1, nb2) 8
TOTAL (6 wkts, 20 overs) 135
B Hilfenhaus, S Cottrell, T Shamsi did not bat

Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Gayle, 1.1 overs); 2-11 (Mohammad Hafeez); 3-37 (Lewis, 7.2); 4-45 (King, 10.1); 5-65 (Thomas, 12.2); 6-114 (Carter, 18.6)
Bowling: Beaton 4-0-27-1; Searles 4-0-29-2 (nb1, w1); Christian 3-0-21-0; Narine 4-1-8-1 (nb1); Bravo 2-0-24-0; Cooper 2-0-12-2; Yasir Shah 1-0-9-0

KNIGHT RIDERS (target: 136 off 20 overs)
S Narine c and b Cottrell 3
C Munro c Lewis b Mohammad Hafeez 29
*DJ Bravo b Cottrell 0
Hamza Tariq c King b Shamsi 18
DM Bravo lbw b Mohammad Hafeez 1
+D Ramdin not out 26
D Christian run out 8
J Searles c Lewis b Shamsi 2
K Cooper not out 29
Extras (lb10, w9, nb1) 20
TOTAL (7 wkts, 19 overs) 136
Yasir Shah, R Beaton did not bat

Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Narine, 1.2 overs); 2-12 (DJ Bravo, 1.4); 3-48 (Munro, 6.3); 4-53 (DM Bravo, 8.2); 5-67 (Hamza Tariq, 10.3); 6-77 (Christian, 11.5); 7-90 (Searles, 14.2)
Bowling: Hilfenhaus 3-0-30-0 (nb1, w2); Cottrell 3-0-21-2; Mohammad Hafeez 4-0-19-2; Mohammad Nabi 1-0-19-0; Brathwaite 4-0-17-0 (w1); Shamsi 4-0-20-2 (w2)

Result: Knight Riders won by three wickets
Series: Knight Riders win 2017 CPL title
Toss: Knight Riders
Player-of-the-Match: Kevon Cooper (Knight Riders)
Umpires: Gregory Brathwaite, Langton Rusere
TV umpire: Johan Cloete
Match referee: Dev Govindjee

 

---

---