All-round Narine helps TKR beat Guyana

Brief Scores: Trinbago Knight Riders 147 for 6 (Narine 50, Darren Bravo 30, Naveen-ul-Haq 2 for 21, Tahir 2 for 40) beat Guyana Amazon Warriors 144 for 5 (Hetmyer 63*, Taylor 33, Narine 2 for 19) by four wickets. [17 overs per side]

Toss: TKR won, chose to field
Man of The Match: Sunil Narine (TKR)

Trinbago Knight Riders got their 2020 Caribbean Premier League season off to a fantastic start, beating Guyana Amazon Warriors by four wickets in a rain-affected match at the Brian Lara Cricket Stadium on Tuesday (August 18).

Sunil Narine was the star of the day, chipping in with handy performances with both ball (2/19) and bat (50 off 28). Chasing 145 for victory, TKR got over the line with two balls to spare.

After a long rain-delay, the match got off as a 17-over-per-side-affair. Sent in to bat, Guyana lost early wickets. Shimron Hetmyer scored an unbeaten 63 off 44 balls, but it wasn't easy to bat against a clinical TKR bowling attack.

Sunil grabbed two wickets, while Ali Khan, debutant Jayden Seales and DJ Bravo picked up one wicket each to restrict Guyana to 144/5

We lost Lendl Simmons and Colin Munro Early (both scored 17) but Narine kept the scoreboard ticking with 4 sixes and 2 boundaries in his knock. He got to his 50 courtesy a dropped catch at long off, and even though he was dismissed the next delivery, he had done all the damage by then.

Experienced duo Darren Bravo (30) and Kieron Pollard took us closer to the target and even though we lost a few wickets towards the end, the deep batting lineup made sure we chased down the target. DJ Bravo hit the winning runs, as we bagged two points from the contest.

Sunil Narine, Player of the Match: "Getting Taylor's wicket was key while bowling. Batting got easier as the day went. They bowled well, but I just continued trying to stay as still as possible. It's a good win, although it got close."

Chris Green, Guyana Amazon Warriors captain: "It was going to be tough beating 11 wins in a row from last year. Was a tough game, it was the first game in a long time, so... Given the start, losing two early wickets, I think Taylor and Hetmyer batted really well. We thought 140 would be a good score. We spoke about holding that length, and when we went away from that, we got hurt. Plenty of room for improvement."

Kieron Pollard, Trinbago Knight Riders Captain: "Any competition, you want to start well. A little scratchy and scrappy but good to get over the line. We needed to play a good game of cricket and it was a good game of cricket. Points on the board at the start."