CPL 2020 kicks off, Trinbago Knight Riders and Barbados Tridents start on winning note.
By Line: Vinayak Heliwal
The T20 cricket is back in action with the start of the Caribbean Premier League 2020. After International cricket marked its return with the remarkable Test series between England and West Indies last month, franchise-based T20 league returns and joins the party.
The Caribbean Premier League is the first T20 league to start its new season amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 edition of the T20 tournament in the Caribbean started yesterday and will run till 10 September.
The opening day of CPL 2020 witnessedTrinbago Knight Riders (TKR) and Barbados Tridents starting their CPL 2020 campaign on a winning note beating Guyana Amazon Warriors and St Kitts and Navis Patriots respectively.
The opening match was reduced to 17 overs a side after a slight delay due to rain, Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) defeated Guyana Amazon Warriors by four wickets. Sunil Narine was the best performer of the match by the fantastic all-round performance
Sunil Narine scored 50 off just 28 balls and was the pick of bowlers with figures of 2 for 19 in four overs. Final Score: Trinbago Knight Riders 147/6 (Sunil Narine 50, Naveen-ul-Haq 2-21) defeat Guyana Amazon Warriors 144/5(Shimron Hetmyer 63, Sunil Narine 2-19) by four wickets
In the second match of the day, Barbados Tridents defeated St Kitts and Nevis Patriots by six runs owing to all-round efforts the team. Rashid Khan showed his class by scalping two wickets and scoring 26 important runs in the first innings.
Final Score: Barbados Tridents 153/9 (Jason Holder 38, Rayad Emrit 2-16) beat St Kitts and Nevis Patriots 147/5(Joshua Da Silva 41, Mitchel Santner 2-18) by six runs.
The CPL 2020 will be played at two venues in Trinidad and Tobago – The Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba and Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain in the absence of spectators following the COVID-19 guidelines. In Trinidad, 133 cases of COVID -19 patients were witnessed with more than 100 fully recovered from the disease.