Dwayne Smith century leads Tridents to victory over Stars

Barbados Tridents’ Dwayne Smith continued to pile on the runs with yet another century to lead his team to a 29-run victory over the winless St. Lucia Stars in the Hero CPL T20 2017 competition.

Playing at Kensington Oval, Tridents were keen to avenge their loss to Amazon Warriors when they were bowled out for a paltry 59 runs.

Winning the toss, Tridents captain Kieron Pollard decided to bat first and Smith had a new opening partner in Nicholas Pooran.

Pooran led the attack in the partnership with the Tridents racing to 20 in the third over and Pooran striking the ball to all parts of the ground.

During this period, Smith was smartly pinching singles to ensure Pooran got the majority of the strike.

Pooran eventually went for 32 runs off 20 balls, which included four boundaries and two sixes, as he was deceived by a slower ball and only succeeded in a one-handed shot in the air, which was caught by Stars wicketkeeper Andre Fletcher.

Tridents were 44/1 at the beginning of the sixth over, and reached 50/1 by the end of it.

However, Tridents’ scoring slowed as they lost Kane Williamson after just four balls and Pollard came to the middle early with the score on 57.

Smith reached his half century off just 44 balls with a six over long on and into the Garfield Sobers Pavilion.

Smith started to pick up the scoring and was on 90 runs off 62 balls with one over left.

However, a lighting tower went down for half an hour, and the Barbados Fire Service was called into action as there was smoke seen.

On the resumption, it was Christopher Barnell who was on strike and struck the ball to the boundary beautifully and in the end, only gave Smith three deliveries to reach his century.

Smith cracked Shane Watson for two consecutive sixes to reach his century.

On the first ball, Smith struck a flat six on the offside going onto one knee to reach 96 off 63 balls. Then Smith muscled the ball over the boundary to go to 102 off 64 balls. This was his fourth hundred in CPL cricket and his second in this year’s competition.

With his unbeaten 103 runs, Smith became the highest run scorer in the tournament with 332 runs, while Brendon McCullum from the Knight Riders is second with 309.

Smith also has the two highest individual scores in the tournament with 103 runs and 100 runs.

In addition, he has the most sixes in an innings with eight and has a total of 18 sixes in the tournament.

Tridents finished on 195/4 off their 20 overs.

In reply, the St. Lucia Stars looked on course to chase down the target with Rahkeem Cornwall and Johnson Charles racing along.

Cornwall, who opened the batting, finished with 78 runs off 44 balls before he retired hurt which may have been the pivotal moment in the run chase as his team needed 49 runs off 17 balls.

Pollard’s fourth delivery struck Cornwall in the midsection in the 16th over and Cornwall retired hurt in the 18th.

St. Lucia Stars ended on 166/4.

Tridents’ playoff hopes remained alive with the victory and they will now face off against Trinbago Knight Riders today at Kensington Oval.

SCOREBOARD
CPL T20 Barbados Tridents v St. Lucia Stars
Thursday, August 31 2017 (20:00) at Kensington Oval

Barbados Tridents Won By 29 runs – 12:41 am
Barbados Tridents won toss and decided to bat

Barbados Tridents St Lucia Stars
195 for 4 (20.0 overs) 166 for 4 (20.0 overs)
1 Hour, 55 Minutes. 1 Hour, 52 Minutes.

Barbados Tridents
Dwayne Smith not out 103
Nicholas Pooran+ c A Fletcher b O McCoy 32
Kane Williamson st A Fletcher b R Cornwall 2
Kieron Pollard* c S Shillingford b R Cornwall 11
Eoin Morgan c S Watson b K Mayers 5
Christopher Barnwell not out 26
Extras (2lb 13w 1nb) 16
Total: 195 for 4
Bowling: Jerome Taylor 4.0-0-40-0, Obed McCoy 4.0-0-25-1, Rahkeem Cornwall 4.0-0-30-2, Shane Watson 3.0-0-55-0, Shane Shillingford 3.0-0-20-0, Kyle Mayers 2.0-0-23-1.
Fall of Wickets: Nicholas Pooran 1-44, Kane Williamson 2-57, Kieron Pollard 3-83, Eoin Morgan 4-131.

St. Lucia Stars
Andre Fletcher+c E Morgan b R Rampaul 10
Rahkeem Cornwall retd, not out 78
Shane Watson* c I Khan b W Riaz 22
Johnson Charles c D Smith b K Pollard 13
Marlon Samuels c K Pollard b W Parnell 17
Darren Sammy not out 13
Kyle Mayers not out 5
Extras (5lb 3w ) 8
Total: 166 for 4
Bowling: Ravi Rampaul 3.0-0-39-1, Wahab Riaz 4.0-0-15-1, Wayne Parnell 4.0-0-30-1, Akeal Hosein 2.0-0-24-0, Imran Khan 1.0-0-9-0, Kieron Pollard 4.0-0-22-1, Christopher Barnwell 2.0-0-22-0.
Fall of Wickets: Andre Fletcher 1-10, Shane Watson 2-48, Johnson Charles 3-100, Rahkeem Cornwall *3-147, Marlon Samuels 4-149.