Saint Lucia Kings survive Pollard scare to record fourth win

Kieron Pollard turned back the clock and reclaimed the top spot in the all-time T20 run-charts with a 26-ball 65. But he couldn’t avert a third straight defeat for Trinbago Knight Riders, who went down to Saint Lucia Kings by 36 runs at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad. The Kings’ victory was set up by Tim Seifert’s second CPL hundred and a three-wicket over from skipper Roston Chase that derailed TKR’s chase, even as Pollard threatened to do the unthinkable.

Seifert and Kamil Pooran got the Kings off to a rapid start with a 60-run opening stand, with the New Zealander raising a rapid half-century. Pooran and John Campbell chipped in with valuable cameos before Sunil Narine removed the latter for his 650th T20 scalp, at which point Seifert was on 82 off 38 and the Kings, 135/2 after 12 overs. Narine and Tariq stunted the Kings’ progress as just 21 runs came across the next four overs. Charith Asalanka broke free with a hat-trick of sixes off Drakes but the slower ones proved difficult to put away even for Seifert. Pollard gave away just 15 runs across the 18th and 20th over, but Seifert notched up his second CPL hundred as the Kings posted 211, the highest total of the season.

TKR got off to a flyer in their chase, with Colin Munro proving to be the chief aggressor in a 70-run opening partnership with Narine. It took Chase just four deliveries to flip things around, however: immediately after being hit for a one-handed six, the offspinner removed Narine and backed it up with the wickets of Matthew Breetzke and Nicholas Pooran. Joshua Bishop bowled a nagging spell at his end and once Munro too fell in the 11th over, it seemed all but over for the Knight Riders.

Pollard had other ideas though, taking Bishop down in a 21-run over as he thundered along. Such was the marauding hitting on display that while a struggling Matthew Tromp crawled to 7 off 19 at one stage, Pollard raced to 44 off the same number of deliveries. He soon raised a fifty as he tore into Maheesh Theekshana in another 21-run over, bringing the equation down to a very gettable 66 off the last 24 balls.

But Matthew Forde landed the decisive blow, removing Pollard with a short delivery. That shut the door on the Knight Riders as neither Tromp nor Jyd Goolie managed to get a move on. None of the last four overs produced runs in double-digits as the Kings moved to the top of the table.

Brief Scores: Saint Lucia Kings 211/4 in 20 overs (Tim Seifert 105*, Charith Asalanka 33; Kieron Pollard 1-24, Sunil Narine 1-27) beat Trinbago Knight Riders 175/6 in 20 overs (Kieron Pollard 65, Colin Munro 48; Roston Chase 3-24, Joshua Bishop 1-25) by 36 runs