It was quite an extraordinary batting display from Darren Bravo (94*) coupled with Brendon McCullum's 68 which gave the Trinbago Knight Riders their second win of the campaign. Meanwhile, the Stars have succumbed to their fourth straight loss in the season and are yet to win in their last 15 matches.
The Knight Riders scored 80 in the last three overs as total 34 sixes were hit during their chase. Bravo alone hit 10 sixes in his magical knock including a 32 run over against Kieron Pollard. Bravo's knock cancelled out Kieron Pollard’s first innings 50 from just 18 balls – fastest 50 this season. In 2016, 34 sixes were hit between Central Districts and Otago in New Zealand in December.
Batting first, the St. Lucia Stars scored 212 from their 20 overs on the back of David Warner's (72*) Rahkeem Cornwall (53) and captain Kieron Pollard (65*) – but the eventual 212/2 was not good enough for the win. McCullum scored 68 and Bravo remained unbeaten on 94 to finish on 218/5. The defeat meant St Lucia have now gone winless in 15 matches.
Meanwhile, the win has taken TKR to the second position in the points table as of now. “It was a pretty good batting wicket, we obviously didn’t get off to a good start but McCullum and I got into a good partnership and that paid off,” said Bravo, the Player of the Match. “He knew his strengths and I knew my strengths, and we used the breeze flowing across the ground. He said he’ll take one end and I’ll keep doing it from mine.”
While chasing TKR lost their openers early which gave the Stars a brief opening to come back into the game. Then Darren Bravo and Brendon McCullum took the game away from them by their superlative performance and some exquisite strokeplay.
This isn’t the first time that Trinbago have been involved in a game that stretched to 200-plus scores. Earlier, against Jamaica Tallawahs, they had scored 223/6 but the Tallawahs had chased it down.
Brief scores
St Lucia Stars 212/2 in 20 overs (David Warner 72*, Kieran Pollard 63*) lost to Trinbago Knight Riders 218/5 in 20 overs (Darren Bravo 94*, Brendon McCullum 68) by five wickets.
