Knight Riders ride on Pollard blitz to down Kings

Kieron Pollard's blistering 19-ball 52* helped Trinbago Knight Riders chase down a 188-run target with five balls and four wickets to spare, to hand St Lucia Kings their second successive defeat of CPL 2024. Roston Chase and Bhanuka Rajapaksha steadied Kings after four wobbly overs to guide them to a strong finish on 187/6. However, Shaqkere Parris' rollicking knock and Pollard's finishing touches ensured a comfortable victory in the end for the Knight Riders, their second of the season.

Put in to bat first, Kings went at 9.5 an over in the powerplay, powered by Johnson Charles' 14-ball cameo worth 29 and skipper Faf du Plessis' 26-ball 34. A quiet opening over later, Charles took the attack to Jayden Seales with a 6, 4, 6 - all on the offside - before tearing into Akeal Hosein. TKR summoned Sunil Narine in the fourth over, and the ace spinner delivered immediate results by having Charles caught at long-off. Hosein got more severe punishment from du Plessis, but Narine plugged the runs in his next and also handed the new batter, Sadrack Descarte, a golden duck.

Narine was guilty of dropping du Plessis on 23, and the former South African skipper hacked a six soon after to keep the attack going but Waqar Salamkheil put an end to those fireworks in his first over, cleaning up his stumps with a sharp turner. Chase was then joined by Rajapaksa in the middle to resurrect the innings after the slight wobble, and the pair responded by putting on 80 runs for the fourth-wicket stand.

After moving at about run-a-ball, Rajapaksha switched gears by smoking back to back sixes off Salamkheil but it wasn't until the 17th over that Chase had truly joined the party. Pollard sent Rajapaksa packing with a slower ball but Chase deposited one maximum each on either side of the wicket to still make it an expensive 18th over. Cameos from Tim Seifert (11 off 4) and Matthew Forde (11 off 7) ensured Kings finished with a competitive total despite Narine choking the runs in his four overs as he finished with mighty impressive figures of 2 for 13.

If he hadn't caused enough damage with the bat, Narine gave Knight Riders' chase a blistering start with two maximums in his short eight-ball cameo upfront to set the tone for the powerplay. Shaqkere Parris made his intentions clear with a first ball six too, and hacked three more of those in the space of four balls in Khari Campbell's opening over to propel his side to 70/1 in just five overs. Noor Ahmad plugged the free flow of runs by first removing a set Jason Roy at the other end in a miserly first over.

Parris continued to deal in sixes, bringing up his half-century in just 20 balls with his sixth maximum. However, Sadrack Descarte returned into the attack to stem the free flow of runs and have Nicholas Pooran caught at deep cover. In the six overs, from 10 to the end of 15, TKR could add only 35 runs to their tally. Noor dismissed the well-set Parris as the dot-ball pressure mounted, and Descarte bowled his three remaining on the trot to finish with 1-24 .

Pollard then switched gears. Having already started with a second-ball six, the skipper laid into Forde and hammered four more of them in the 19th over to not only relieve the pressure but also complete his 19-ball half-century that scripted an easy win eventually.

Brief scores: St. Lucia Kings 187/6 in 20 overs (Roston Chase 56*, Faf du Plessis 34; Sunil Narine 2-13, Waqar Salamkheel 2-37) lost to Trinbago Knight Riders 189/6 in 19.1 overs (Shaqkere Parris 57, Kieron Pollard 52*; Noor Ahmad 2-35, Matthew Forde 2-9) by 4 wickets