Trinbago Knight Riders won the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) for the record third time after beating Guyana Amazon Warriors in the final of CPL 2018.
Trinbago skipper Chris Green decided to field first after winning the toss. Guyana opener Cameron Delport was bowled on the very first delivery of the game. However, another opener Luke Ronchi and the no.3 batsman Shimron Hetmyer rescued the team with the 52-run partnership for the second wicket. But once that partnership was broken, their next wickets were fallen in regular intervals.
Hetmyer scored 15 runs while the opener Ronchi played the highest knock in that innings of 44 runs (35 balls; 6 fours and only six). Jason Mohammed (24) was the only other batsman in that innings to reach the 20-run marks.
At the end of 20 overs, Guyana managed to score 147/9. Among the Trinbago bowlers, Khary Pierre (3/29) picked up three wickets while Dwayne Bravo (2/30) got two wickets. Moreover, Ali Khan (1/20), Fawad Ahmed (1/29) and Sunil Narine (1/31) bagged one wicket each.
In reply, Trinbago openers Dinesh Ramdin and Brendon McCullum provided a good start that made easy for them to clinch a victory in that game and seal the crown. Openers put 52-run partnership as McCullum lost his wicket after scoring 39 runs off 24 balls (5 fours and 2 sixes) while Ramdin stretched his innings to 24 runs off 30 balls before getting hit wicket.
Dwayne Bravo was retired hurt on 4 runs and Colin Ingram was not out on 7 runs while the no.3 batsman Colin Munro played the important role to secure the game for Trinbago as he remained unbeaten on 68 runs off 39 balls (6 fours and 3 sixes). Trinbago reached the target in 17.3 overs after losing two wickets only as they won the match by 8 wickets with 15 balls remaining.
Among the Guyana bowlers, only Romario Shepherd (1/29) and the skipper Chris Green (1/30) were able to pick up the wickets.
Khary Pierre won the Player of the Match award for his brilliant bowling in the final match while Colin Munro won the Player of the Series award for his brilliant batting in this whole tournament as he finished as the leading run-scorer in the tournament by scoring 567 runs in 13 innings with the average of 51.54.
Brief Scores: Guyana Amazon Warriors – 147/9 in 20 overs (Luke Ronchi 44, Jason Mohammed 24; Khary Pierre 3/29)
Trinbago Knight Riders – 150/2 in 17.3 overs (Colin Munro 68*, Brendon McCullum 39; Romario Shepherd 1/29)
Result – Trinbago Knight Riders won by 8 wickets
Some important stats:
- Trinbago Knight Riders won the CPL trophy for the third time. It is the most number of CPL trophies winning by a team.
- Trinbago Knight Riders won the back-to-back CPL trophies in 2017 and 2018. It is the first time in CPL history when the defending champions retain their crown.
