Carter, Greaves lead the way as Tridents win big

Justin Greaves ensured that Barbados Tridents didn't miss a beat without prized opener Alex Hales around, as the former West Indies Under-19 star belted a half-century at the top of the order to lay the platform for a resounding 71-run over St Lucia Zouks on Friday night at Gros Islet.

Greaves was one of two CPL debutants to play a significant role on the night, as left-arm spinner Joshua Bishop took 2 for 33 bowling with the new ball to rattle the hosts early in their failed chase.

With Hales having gone back to Nottinghamshire for the Vitality Blast T20 Finals Day, Greaves was tapped on the shoulder to fill his place opening the batting and he filled in more than admirably by striking 57 off 45 balls. He was so keen to impress that he hogged the majority of the strike in his 81-run opening stand with Johnson Charles.

Charles was more aggressive early, creaming Kesrick Williams for a pair of sixes in the third over, but after Greaves edged just over Andre Fletcher behind the stumps off Williams, he began to hit his stride, especially against Kavem Hodge in the fourth over, driving a pair of boundaries through the off side. His confidence grew further when he struck sixes off Hardus Viljoen and Fawad Ahmed at the end of the sixth and early part of the seventh over. Shortly after Charles got out in the ninth, Greaves brought up his fifty off 36 balls. He fell in the 12th to Rahkeem Cornwall but had set his side up well for a defendable total.

Bajan star Jonathan Carter upstaged Greaves in the Man-of-the-Match stakes with a tremendous all-round showing. It began with a brisk cameo following up Greaves, as he smashed three sixes in the space of five balls off Ahmed and Cornwall in the 15th and 16th to keep the Tridents innings humming. A fourth six off Obed McCoy finished off his scoring in the 17th as McCoy dismissed him next ball leaving the score at 140 for 3 with 20 balls remaining. Another 32 were added the rest of the way, which was more than plenty when Carter's fielding heroics were taken into consideration.

After Bishop and Jason Holder had decimated the Zouks with four wickets in the Powerplay, Carter came to the fore in the field with a spectacular diving catch off Raymon Reifer to start the eighth over. Reprising the backward point exploits of team-mate Hayden Walsh Jr. from earlier in the tournament, Carter dove full stretch to his left to foil Darren Sammy's attempted glide behind point for a thrilling one-handed catch.

Colin de Grandhomme was then run out by Carter with a direct hit as he continued to make his presence felt at backward point. The New Zealand allrounder was turned back by Christopher Barnwell after trying to squeeze a run through the off side off legspinner Sandeep Lamichhane, and Carter made him pay the price for straying too far out of his crease for a desperate run that was never there to leave the Zouks reeling at 62 for 6 in the ninth.

Bishop had earlier bounced back after a shaky start - he leaked a pair of boundaries off his first two balls - to snare Cornwall off the third ball of the chase. Holder held one over back for the 11th and it resulted in his second wicket of the night. Barnwell tried to heave the 19-year-old over the leg side and skied a catch to JP Duminy, giving Bishop his second wicket on a night in which he became the third youngest West Indies player to debut in the CPL.

The debutant duo of Greaves and Bishop helped the Tridents to their second win, moving them two points clear of both the Zouks and the Tallawahs for sole possession of fourth place on the CPL table.