BEAUSEJOUR, St Lucia – Barbados Tridents humbled the St Lucia Zouks by 83 runs at the Beausejour Cricket Ground here Thursday night to record their fourth straight win in the Limacol Caribbean Premier League.
The Zouks were routed for a paltry 92 off 17.5 overs searching for a victory target of 176.
Ashley Nurse and Rayad Emrit undermined the Zouks, picking up three wickets each, while Shannon Gabriel and Man Of The Match Kieron Pollard bagged two wickets each.
The home team were pegged back early by the Tridents all-spin attack at the start of the innings. After five overs, the Zouks had crawled to 20 for one, and after ten, had made slow progress at 55 for three.
Tamim Iqbal holed out to long off off Nurse in the second over of the innings for one and Devon Smith was caught by wicketkeeper Umar Akmal for 12, pulling and top edging Gabriel.
Andre Fletcher, the Zouk’s most consistent batsman to date, failed on this occasion, cutting a short ball into the hands of Shoaib Malik at third man when on 14.
Misbah Ul-Haq top-scored with 23 and Herschelle Gibbs made 21. The pair put on 43 for the fourth wicket.
The innings deteriorated even further as the last five Zouks wickets went down for only 16 runs.
One of the highlights included an absolutely stunning catch by Kyle Mayers on the boundary, going flat out and taking a low catch to dismiss Shane Shillingford.
Nurse ended with three for 12, Emrit three for 19, Pollard two for eight and Gabriel two for 18.
Dwayne Smith smashed the Zouks attack consistently at the start of the Tridents’ innings, blasting 48 from 38 deliveries with three fours and three sixes.
He featured in a dominant second-wicket stand of 63 with Shoaib Malik, whose 31 came from 27 balls.
Smith was bowled trying to pull a short ball from Albie Morkel that did not bounce as high as he anticipated and Malik played on to Tino Best.
Captain Pollard attacked ruthlessly in the final three overs to push Tridents to a formidable 175 for six. He featured in a sixth-wicket stand of 57 runs off 22 balls with Mayers that swung the innings momentum towards the Tridents who smashed 75 off the last ten overs.
Pollard finished unbeaten with 34 off 21 deliveries, plundering one four and three sixes.
Morkel two for 26, and Best two for 30, were the main wicket takers for the Zouks, who have lost their two home matches in the second week of the competition. (CMC)
