Pooran, Hales fifties and Tariq, Narine strikes put Knight Riders in CPL 2025 final

Alex Hales played anchor, Nicholas Pooran the aggressor, Kieron Pollard the controller in the middle overs, and Andre Russell the finisher to take Trinbago Knight Riders to 194 in Qualifier 2 of CPL 2025 against St Lucia Kings. In reply, Tim Seifert started quickly, but Kings never recovered from a slowdown after the first four overs, and eventually fell short by 56 runs.

Unlike Kings later in the game, Knight Riders had scored just 25 runs in their first four overs after Kings asked them to bat. By then, Khary Pierre had bowled Colin Munro for 6, and Pooran, the new batter, had smashed all of his 14 runs in boundaries.

But after a slow start, Knight Riders lashed 36 runs off the last two overs of the powerplay. Pooran sending Alzarri Joseph for six over extra cover in the fifth over before going 6, 4, 4, 4 off David Wiese in the sixth. Hales, meanwhile, had hardly had the strike until that stage.

Pooran reached his half-century off 31 balls to end the ninth over, but was dismissed immediately after as he missed an attempted sweep against Roston Chase, and was bowled for 50. Eleven overs into their innings, Knight Riders had 89 on the board, and Kings had things under control. But the last nine overs saw Hales, Pollard and Russell bash 105 runs.

On 15 off 21 balls at one stage, Hales broke free with a six off Tymal Mills in the 12th over. With five overs left, Pollard targeted Tabraiz Shamsi, and sent him for three sixes. But Joseph checked Pollard's flow in the 17th over by having him caught at long-off for 35 - an innings that included four sixes - but Kings' pain hadn't ended there.

With three overs left and just 146 on the board, Hales cracked three sixes in the next two overs. The second of those, an inside-out loft over the covers off Joseph, took him to his fifty off 41 deliveries. One final act of aggression from Knight Riders, however, still remained. Russell slammed Wiese for 6, 6, 4, 6 in the final over, which went for 23 runs, and propelled Knight Riders to 194. Russell had thumped 28 in 12 balls before being run out off the last ball, whiles Hales remained unbeaten on a patient 58.

Chasing 195 for a place in the final, Seifert got Kings off to a quick start. He had scored 32 of the 38 runs Kings had until then, and was dropped on 38 in the ninth over. At the other end, Johnson Charles, Seifert's opening partner, was struggling to get going. He ticked along to just 17 off his first 23 deliveries, before Pollard ended his stay to complete the ninth over.

The required run-rate was already past 12, with Seifert also slowing down. Kings were never in the game after that. Although Seifert got to his half-century with back-to-back boundaries off Akeal Hosein in the 12th over, and Usman Tariq conceded a boundary each to Seifert and Tim David in the 13th, two wickets in as many balls ended Kings' faint hopes of victory.

Tariq first had Seifert chipping to short third for 58, and then got Ackeem Auguste caught at wide long-on as the batter went sweeping first ball. From 98 for 3, Kings lost five wickets in the last six overs of the chase. Sunil Narine got into the act by having David caught behind in the 15th over, and then struck twice in the 19th to dismiss Aaron Jones and Wiese.

Tariq added two more wickets to his tally in the final over by getting Chase and Mills, as Knight Riders booked a date Guyana Amazon Warriors on Sunday.