Cooper assault takes Knight Riders to second CPL title
Kevon Cooper blitzed 29 off 14 balls in a low-scoring thriller to lead Trinbago Knight Riders to a three-wicket win in the CPL final
Patriots, one of the most powerful batting line-ups in the tournament, were kept to a mere 135 thanks in part to an excellent early burst from seamer Javon Searles. He has been one of the unsung heroes for Knight Riders in their run to the final. In multiple matches this year, he has neither batted nor bowled.
The low scores kept coming early, and often, in a final dominated by bowlers and Sunil Narine was at his remarkable best. The runs off his bat have dried up, but he more than compensated by bowling a masterful spell of 4-1-8-1 on the biggest night of the CPL. The crowning achievement of his 24 balls came when he pinned Evin Lewis lbw for 16. His bowling was so intimidating that he started his last over with a silly point.
Cooper built on the early inroads made by Searles and Narine. As has been the trend through this tournament, a wicket fell in the first over after the drinks break. Cooper took advantage of the batting side's lapse in concentration, striking first ball to dismiss Brandon King. In his next over, he claimed Devon Thomas to leave Patriots at 65 for 5.
If the Patriots had won, their championship DVD might have been called "Tarouba Nights". Knight Riders struggled to fully cement their early advantage courtesy heroics from Carlos Brathwaite and Mohammad Nabi. Both played crucial knocks late in the innings - and not for the first time this year - to ransack 56 runs off the last four overs of the innings.
Sheldon Cottrell took two wickets in three balls and put the hosts under immense pressure. He first claimed Narine with a skied chance for a return catch. When Dwayne Bravo decided to promote himself to No. 3, Cottrell greeted him with an almighty salute, sending him off for a first-ball duck after a full delivery beat the Knight Riders captain for pace.
Brendon McCullum may have left a gaping hole in his absence during the playoffs, but Colin Munro did his best to plug it. Munro moved up to open the batting in the last two games and on this night provided a valuable 29, which wound up as the joint-top score in the chase.
While more heralded colleagues such as the Bravo brothers came and went cheaply - Darren followed Dwayne's duck by falling for 1 playing back to Mohammad Hafeez - Hamza Tariq provided a crucial 18. Other than Munro's three sixes off Nabi in the sixth over, the only boundary struck by Knight Riders in the first ten overs came from Tariq. The rest of his knock comprised mainly of back-foot shovels to the leg side. Nothing glamorous, but it did the job.
Knight Riders lost three more wickets in the first five overs after drinks, culminating in Tabraiz Shamsi's dismissal of Searles for 2 to make it 90 for 7. Depending on your video-game cartoon of choice, Shamsi looked like he celebrated by doing a sub-zero freeze from Mortal Kombat and Patriots appeared to have thrown ice on the Knight Riders chase.
Peter Della Penna is ESPNcricinfo's USA correspondent. @PeterDellaPenna