CPL 2019 | Trinbago Hit Third Highest T20 Score in 41-Run Win Over Tallawahs

Trinbago Knight Riders hit their highest ever CPL total of 267/2, and the third highest total in T20 history on Friday night, as they beat Jamaica Tallawahs by 41 runs at Sabina Park.

The highest T20 total was hit by Afghanistan against Ireland earlier this year (278/3), while the Czech Republic national team also equalled Afghanistan’s total playing against Turkey in August 2019, but lost one wicket more.

Colin Munro top scored for TKR with an unbeaten 96, Lendl Simmons hit 86 and Kieron Pollard was 45* at the end of the first innings, as singles and doubles were forgotten for the aerial route.

The Tallawahs made a brave attempt at chasing the score down, with Chris Gayle and Glenn Phillips hitting from the get-go. But when Mohammad Hasnain struck twice in the eighth over with the two wickets of Gayle (39 from 24) and Chadwick Walton, it sucked the air out of the Tallawahs’ chase.

Rovman Powell then had to retire hurt with an abdominal injury after tonking his second ball over midwicket for six.

Phillips went through to his 50 from just 22 balls having been dropped twice when on 37 but his luck ran out on 62 as he miscued Pollard to deep midwicket where Munro made no mistake.

The Tallawahs kept losing wickets from that point on and could never really make their way back into the chase.

However, it was their bowling which let the Tallawahs down in the first place, with TKR making the most of the loose change on offer from the bowlers.

In the first innings, Simmons was caught at mid-on off a no-ball. The Knight Riders took advantage of that and racked up 65/1 in the first six overs.

On the other hand, Jerome Taylor was finding it hard to get into a rhythm and took 17 balls to complete his first two overs, bowling three wides and two no-ball. The second no-ball would have a big say in the match, as Simmons would have been dismissed, chipping the ball to mid-on and starting to walk off before the umpire’s call saved him.

Even as Sunil Narine was dismissed shortly after, Colin Munro walked into the middle and hit his first ball for four and his third ball for six. The tone was set.

The score was 96/1 at the halfway mark of the first innings, and things only got better for TKR from that point on.

A whopping 154 runs came from the last eight overs, with the 13th over, Powell’s last, produced 23 runs. Munro hit two sixes over the legside, with Simmons adding another with a wristy whip of a shot that was hit hard, low and flat back over the bowler’s head to clear the rope.

Simmons was finally dismissed in the 15th, but in walked in Kieron Pollard who looked like he meant business as he picked up where Pollard left.

Pollard’s stand with Munro was 88 runs by the end of their partnership, and the 30 runs that came from the second last over of the innings would massively tilt the match in favour of the Knight Riders, allowing them to post the record-breaking total that they did.

The win for TKR means that they have returned to the top of the Caribbean Premier League table.​