Sunil Narine stars again with bat and ball in Trinbago Knight Riders' second straight win

An incisive new-ball display from Ali Khan and Jayden Seales put the Jamaica Tallawahs into a hole which they could not climb out of as the Trinbago Knight Riders dominated wire to wire in a seven-wicket win on Thursday night. Sunil Narine and Fawad Ahmed continued to keep the Tallawahs pinned down in the middle overs, including a wicket maiden from Ahmed, while Andre Russell failed to launch at the death - scoring 25 at under a run a ball - as the Tallawahs sputtered to 135 for 8.

Fidel Edwards produced a wicket maiden of his own for the Tallawahs at the start of the chase, claiming Lendl Simmons with a skied slog to mid-off. But Narine bashed his second fifty in a row to steady the Knight Riders, and teamed with Colin Munro in a 75-run stand before falling in the first over after drinks on a top-edged sweep off Sandeep Lamichhane to deep fine leg for Carlos Brathwaite's second catch. But Brathwaite grassed two subsequent efforts in the field to sum up a subpar night for the Tallawahs. Munro ended unbeaten on 49 as a wide from Brathwaite down leg clinched the match with 11 balls to spare.

The Knight Riders' favourite son from the USA struck in the first over for the second match running, this time getting a top-edge from Chadwick Walton to swirl into the hands of Ahmed at short fine leg on the second ball of play. Seales then followed that up by trapping Nicholas Kirton on the back leg in front of middle with a beautiful inswinger before Khan induced a mistimed pull from captain Rovman Powell that travelled gently to mid-on where Dwayne Bravo's tumbling effort made it 19 for 3 in the third over.

Glenn Phillips did his best to breathe life back into the innings. He struck five fours and four sixes in his measured knock but his good fortune departed when he whipped a leg stump half-volley from Seales straight to Bravo on the rope at deep backward square leg in the 16th over to make it 99 for 6. Solid death bowling from Khan and Bravo ensured Russell was held in check until he drove Bravo to Munro at long-off to extinguish the last remaining threat.

The new-age allrounder pounded the boundary all around the ground in his 53 off 38 balls, but perhaps most impressive were a pair of lofted drives over extra cover on one leg against Russell. The left-hand batsman showed his flair with a pair of pirouette punches to clear the off side and leave the Tallawahs flummoxed.

For the most part, both he and Munro countered the challenge of Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Lamichhane well. Munro took guard well outside off stump to counter Mujeeb's line of attack that aimed for the wide lines while both Narine and Munro mostly stayed deep to play Lamichhane late with his steady diet of googlies landing short enough to be worked comfortably through the off side. Narine was finally undone trying to go through the leg side against the turn of Lamichhane's wrong-un, but not before he had put the Knight Riders on course to complete a mostly stress-free chase.