The St Kitts & Nevis Patriots returned to winning ways with an eight wicket victory over the Trinbago Knight Riders to seal a spot in the latter stages of the 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League.
The Patriots bowled brilliantly and then backed that up with a dominant batting display that saw them knock off the victory target with 32 balls to spare.
It was Evin Lewis who was the star of the show, making 102 from just 52 balls.
The Knight Riders got off to a slow start in the face of some excellent bowling from the Patriots. They reached the end of their PowerPlay at 28/2 with both Lendl Simmons and Denesh Ramdin dismissed caught on the mid-wicket boundary. Ramdin could have gone an over earlier, but Ravi Bopara put down a simple chance. Thankfully for the Patriots this did not prove too costly.
A fifty-run stand between Darren Bravo and Colin Munro steadied the ship and brought the Knight Riders back into the contest. Munro would go on to top score with 47 but when Darren Bravo went for 22 the Knight Riders lost momentum once again.
When Munro and Kieron Pollard went in successive balls bowled by Jon-Russ Jaggesar it looked as if the Knight Riders would set a sub-par total but some big hitting from Sunil Narine took his team to 159/7.
The Patriots innings got off to a flying start thanks to Evin Lewis and Chris Gayle who was promoted to open as a result of an injury to Devon Thomas. They reached 67/1 from their PowerPlay overs with Gayle the wicket to fall for 35 from 18 balls.
When Gayle went it was Lewis who took up the attack, passing his fifty from just 27 balls. While Narine was economical, returning figures of 0/10 from his four overs, the rest of the Knight Riders bowlers struggled for control in the face of the Lewis onslaught.
Bopara and Lewis shared an 85-run stand, and Bopara contributed just seven runs as the Patriots opener smashed the ball to all parts.
This win moves the Patriots back to the top of the table and guarentees them a space in the semi-finals on Tuesday 14 September.
Brief Scores: St Kitts & Nevis Patriots 160/2 (Lewis 102*, Gayle 35; Pollard 1/20, Khan 1/54) beat Trinbago Knight Riders 159/7 (Munro 47, Narine 32*; Jaggesar 3/32, Drakes 3/32) by eight wickets
