St Kitts and Nevis Patriots 139-2 (Samuels 71 no) beat
Barbados Tridents 135-8 (Pollard 49) by eight wickets
15th Match, Caribbean Premier League, St Kitts

St Kitts and Nevis Patriots secured a comfortable victory in game 15 of the Caribbean Premier League, after beating the Barbados Tridents by eight wickets with an excellent all-round performance at Warner Park.

Barbados won the toss and elected to bat first, as their openers, Dilshan Munaweera (18) and Dwayne Smith (20), justified that decision with a 47 run stand, seeing off the powerplay without losing any wicket.

Just when it looked like the duo will make their starts count, Shahid Afridi (3-34) castled Munaweera, who was trying to run a wrong’un down to third man, but instead edged it onto the stumps.

In the very next over, Tabraiz Shamsi (4-10) got the big wicket of Smith and should have had one more in the same over, but he dropped a tough chance off his own bowling, giving Shai Hope (5) a reprieve.

Afridi and Shamsi, kept a tight leash on the scoring rate, not allowing Barbados to run away with the game, limiting them to 61 for two at the halfway mark.

Shamsi produced the best spell of his career as he dismissed Jason Holder (17), Hope and Jonathan Carter (0) in the space of seven balls, delivering the killer blow to Barbados.

Barbados’ skipper, Kieron Pollard (49), was fairly silent till the end of the 18th over, but backed it up with four consecutive sixes, hitting Sheldon Cottrell (0-42) and Afridi for a couple each, rescuing his team from the ignominy of a low total.

Pollard was dismissed trying to up the ante off the penultimate ball of the innings, but Rayad Emrit (6 not out), took his team to 135 with a six of the final ball.

Barbados managed 47 runs in the final three overs. Afridi and Shamsi were the only successful bowlers for St Kitts, sharing seven wickets between them.

St Kitts started off the chase in a good fashion, taking 12 runs off the opening over, but received a reprieve when Munaweera failed to hold onto a catch at slips in the second over.

Smith (1-12) was introduced in the third over, though he went for 12 runs, he picked the wicket of Evin Lewis (10), who was looking good with the bat.

Martin Guptill (45) and Marlon Samuels (71 not out) put together an 85-run stand for the second wicket, effectively sealing the fate of the game.

St Kitts tried eight bowlers in total but the effort was in vain, though they got the consolation wicket of Guptill, who was run out thanks to a good piece of fielding from Ashley Nurse (0-22).

Samuels made quick work of the target after Guptill’s departure, scoring 18 runs off the 16th over, hitting Nurse for three boundaries and launching him for a six straight down the ground.

St Kitts eventually romped home to an eight wicket win, with 17 balls still left in the game, consolidating their third position in the points table.

Despite the loss, Barbados, still maintain their position at the top of the points table with a one point lead over St Lucia Zouks, who have a game in hand.

Shamsi picked up the man-of-the-match award for his excellent spell of 4-10 off his four overs.
CPL 2015 Points Table

		P	W	L	Pts
1	Barbados Tridents	7	4	3	8
2	St Lucia Zouks	6	3	2	7
3	St Kitts and Nevis Patriots	6	3	3	6
4	Jamaica Tallawahs	4	2	2	4
5	Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel	3	1	1	3
6	Guyana Amazon Warriors	4	1	3	2

© Cricket World 2015