Trinbago Knight Riders captain Kieron Pollard admits it was a relief to put points on the board, despite a ‘scrappy’ win over Guyana Amazon Warriors to tip off the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
Mystery spinner Sunil Narine played a starring role with a fiery 50 from 28 balls and miserly 2 wickets for 19 runs in a four-wicket win for the T&T-based franchise. On the back of an unbeaten 63 from just 44 balls from Amazon Warriors batsman Shimon Hetmyer, the Guyana franchise put 144 runs on the board.
Though by no means an intimidating total, the Knight Riders did not have a smooth run chase. The bowling of Warriors captain Chris Green and Romario Shepherd kept the Knight Riders’ Narine and Lendl Simmons to just 9 off the first 3 overs. Simmons, in particular looked out of sorts, missing four of Shepherd's slower balls in a row. But then, Narine got cracking with a series of searing sixes to the Warriors on the back foot and pull the Knight Riders back into the game.
"Any competition, you want to start well. A little scratchy and scrappy but good to get over the line,” Pollard said following the game.
“We needed to play a good game of cricket and it was a good game of cricket. Points on the board at the start,” he added.