Duminy, Walsh take down TKR
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — South African JP Duminy lashed the fastest-ever fifty in Caribbean Premier League (CPL) history while rookie leg-spinner Hayden Walsh snatched his maiden five-wicket haul, as Barbados Tridents won their first home game in nine attempts with a convincing 63-run victory over tournament favourites Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) here Thursday night.
Without a win at Kensington Oval dating back to the 2017 season and desperately needing one to break a two-game losing skid, the hosts stunned TKR with a clinical all-round performance under lights.
Choosing to bat first, they piled up a challenging 192 for five off their 20 overs — the second highest CPL total at the Oval — with Duminy top-scoring with a scintillating 65 off just 20 balls.
The left-hander raced to his fifty off just 15 deliveries, eclipsing Evin Lewis’s 17-ball effort earlier in the tournament in Basseterre. Overall, he punched four fours and seven sixes.
Johnson Charles slammed 58 off 39 deliveries and new opening partner, Jonathan Carter, stroked 51, as Tridents fell just short of the venue record of 195 they set two years ago against St Lucia Zouks.
Walsh then scythed through TKR with a spell of five for 19 from four overs as TKR never came to terms with a difficult run chase in their first full game in nine days, and folded for 129 with 14 balls remaining.
To add to his fireworks with the bat, Duminy returned with his left-arm spin to claim two for 24 and also took a brilliant running catch in the deep to dismiss the dangerous Colin Munro for 23.
Left-hander Darren Bravo top-scored with 28 off 24 balls, but TKR never recovered after Walsh snatched three wickets in the 11th over to trigger a terminal slide.
With the victory, Tridents moved back into play-off contention, and are now fourth in the six-team standings on six points. Zouks are one point behind in fifth with Jamaica Tallawahs bottom on four points.
TKR, who are now winless in three outings following defeat to St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in a dramatic Super Over and a no-result against Zouks in Gros Islet, lie second on nine points but still in prime position to secure qualification.
Tridents were handed their best start of the campaign when Johnson and Carter put on 110 off 83 balls for the first wicket. While Johnson struck eight boundaries, Carter struck five fours and a six off 46 deliveries, as the hosts marched to 73 without loss at the halfway stage.
When Carter pulled off-spinner Sunil Narine and was caught in the deep in the 14th over, TKR turned the screws and Tridents managed only 17 runs from the next three overs, leaving them on 129 for three at the end of the 17th.
On 11 at this stage, Duminy quickly moved into overdrive, helping Tridents carve out 63 runs from the last three overs. He single-handedly took 24 runs from the 18th over bowled by fastbowler Ali Khan, before smashing two sixes and three fours in the penultimate over from New Zealand seamer Jimmy Neesham, which leaked 25 runs.
Tridents lost two wickets — including Duminy caught at cover off a full-blooded drive off slow-medium Kieron Pollard (2-38) — but gathered 14 runs to end strongly.
TKR then raced to 30 off 13 balls to put Tridents on the backfoot before Sunil Narine (19) missed a swing at Captain Jason Holder and was bowled in the third over.
And when Lendl Simmons (11) was caught at point off left-arm pacer Harry Hurney in the following over, Tridents had stalled TKR’S momentum.
Munro, who struck a four and two sixes in a 13-ball cameo, tried to keep the momentum going in a 25-run, third-wicket stand with Denesh Ramdin (11), but his dismissal in the seventh over signalled the start of TKR’S decline.
Ramdin followed in the ninth, bowled missing a sweep at Walsh and in the next over, the former Leeward Islands bowler turned the game on his head by first having Pollard holing out in the deep for three, and then knocking over Neesham (0) and Seekkuge Prasanna (0) inside the next three balls.