TKR vs SLZ, CPL 2020 Final: Pollard Picks Four; Trinbago Knight Riders Restricts St Lucia Zouks To 154

Opener Cornwall started off well as he smashed Hosain for a blistering boundary in the very first over but Ali Khan bowled a brilliant yorker to uproot his middle stumps for just 8 runs.

Photo: @CPL (Twitter)

Trinbago Knight Riders skipper Pollard's fiery spell (four wickets) restricted St Lucia Zouks to 154 in their 20 overs on Thursday, September 10, at the Brian Lara Cricket stadium. TKR now need 156 runs to win the CPL 2020 final for a record-extending fourth time and make it 12 wins in a row.

Trinbago Knight Riders won the Toss, and decided to field first against St Lucia Zouks. Cornwall and Deyal came out in the middle to start the innings for St Lucia Zouks and Akela Hosain bowled the first over. Opener Cornwall started off well as he smashed Hosain for a blistering boundary in the very first over  but Ali Khan bowled a brilliant yorker to uproot his middle stumps for just 8 runs.

Deyal also looked in great touch and started showing his class with the bat by hitting consecutive fours in the third over. Sikander Raza who replaced unfit Sunil Narine in the game for TKR, went for huge 18 runs in the fourth over. St Lucia Zouks were in command now with scoreboard reading 43/1 after 4 overs.

Fletcher, who replaced Cornwall, batted well in the power-play and pierced the fielders with a four to bring 50 up for Trinbago Knight Riders in the fifth over. Just when it seemed that the batting duo would take away the match from SLZ, Deyal was caught at slips for 29 and with his wicket a 67-run partnership was put to rest too. Chase was the next man to the crease.

The spinners were smashed for biggies all over the park in the first ten overs but later they managed to put a tight grip on the batsmen to slow down the run-rate. Pollard got the much-needed big wicket for his team by dismissing well-settled Fletcher for 39 off 27 balls. The Zouks had lost both their set batsmen now.

However, Chase showed some resistance to hit a mix of controlled shots to bring up the hundred for Zouks in the 13th over. Skipper Pollard took another important wicket by getting the key batsman Chase out for 22, courtesy a slower ball.

Nabi was the next man in but fell cheaply for 2 runs. He attempted to go big off Bravo's delivery but a mistimed shot from him resulted in him getting out for 2. Sammy was in at 7 to join Zadran in the middle. Quick wickets from the bowlers put TKR in the driver's seat as SLZ were 129/5 after 16 overs.

Sammy got out on 8 and it was now all on Zadran to hit some smashing blows and help his team get a good first-innings total. An off-cutter from Kieron Pollard got rid off Javelle Glenn, who attempted to go for a big hit but the ball went up high in the air and landed in the safe hands of Lendl Simmons.

Playing XI: Trinbago Knight Riders: Lendl Simmons, Tion Webster, Tim Seifert (wk), Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard (capt), Dwayne Bravo, Sikandar Raza, Akeal Hosein, Khary Pierre, Fawad Ahmed, Ali Khan St Lucia Zouks: Rahkeem Cornwall, Mark Deyal, Andre Fletcher (wk), Roston Chase, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Javelle Glen, Daren Sammy (capt), Scott Kuggeleijn, Kesrick Williams, Zahir Khan