Trinbago Knight Riders battled to a six-wicket victory in their 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) encounter with Barbados Royals.

The Knight Riders won the toss and opted to field first, which looked like a good decision as the Barbados Royals were restricted to double figures. Kyle Mayers as the opener was the only batsman who managed to score anything sizeable against a lethal Knight Riders bowling line-up.

With such a low total to chase, the Knight Riders would have fancied their chances, but had an early scare, as they lost two wickets in the PowerPlay, however, Colin Munro would eventually anchor the innings and take them to victory.

Barbados Royals shuffled their batting order in the last game to great success, so it was no surprise to see Mayers opening once again, scoring a fluent 24 runs off 12 balls. However, that was to be the highest score of the innings as Knight Riders used spin to undo the Royals; Kharry Pierre, Akeal Hosein and Sunil Narine combining to take seven of the nine wickets that fell, including that of key batsmen Glenn Phillips, Jason Holder and Azam Khan.

Trinbago Knight Riders started their chase by losing the wicket of Lendl Simmons to the pace of Mohammad Amir, which forced the team to play more cautiously. Munro, Darren Bravo and Tim Seifert carefully accrued runs, and despite losing four wickets, it ended up being a comfortable win for the Knight Riders thanks to Munro’s 41 not out.

Trinbago Knight Riders now have five wins in this year’s Hero CPL and move to the top of the league table.

Trinbago Knight Riders 99-4 (Munro 41*, Bravo 19; Amir 2-19, Bishop 2-20) beat Barbados Royals 93-9 (Mayers 24, Azam Khan 17, Joshua Bishop 17; Pierre 3-16, Seales 2-12) by six wickets.