By:Curtis Morton
It was a case of ‘almost not good enough,’ as the grand finale of the 2017 Caribbean Premier league (CPL) edition, took place on Saturday night-9th September, at the Brian Lara stadium in Trinidad.
A capacity crowd of over 20,000 cricket fans were on hand to view the matchup between the St. Kitts-Nevis Patriots, who were into the play offs and finals for the first time, and previous champs, the Trinbago Knight riders, the home team.
The SKN Patriots batted first and were off to the worst possible start, losing their two main scorers in Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis, cheaply.
Thereafter, the batting struggled to gain momentum and it took a blitz from Carlos Brathwaite and Mohammad Nabi, at the rear end of the innings, to post what looked like a potentially challenging total.
The Trinbago Knight riders, in their turn at the crease, were off to an equally poor start, losing pinch hitter Narine and the injured Dwayne Bravo cheaply, to the ‘army general’, Sheldon Cottrell.
Thereafter, their batting also struggled and with two overs remaining and with all of 22 runs required, the SKN Patriots, for all intents and purposes, were ‘large and in charge.’
At that point, Denesh Ramdin had played a subdued innings and Kevon Cooper was new to the crease.
The critical 19th over was entrusted to the Australian, Ben Hillfenhaus and Kevon Cooper, literally took him to the cleaners.
That over which the bowler would love to forget, yielded: first ball single; second ball wide, third ball wide, fourth ball 2; fifth ball six and a no ball free hit; free hit delivery-four, next ball four, next ball single, final ball single and the winning run.
Denesh Ramdin emphatically thumped the final legitimate ball of the 19th over, for a single and then the fat lady started singing—sorry, that must have been soca King Machel Montano who led the party revelers into full party mode, which went on, until way into the early hours of the morning.
Summarized scores: St Kitts and Nevis Patriots 135 for 6 in 20 overs (Brathwaite 30, Cooper 2-12, Searles 2-29) Trinbago Knight Riders 136 for 7 in 19 overs (Munro 29, Cooper 29*, Hafeez 2-19) Trinbago Knight Riders winning by three wickets