Tridents vs Tallawahs, 14th Match at Port of Spain, CPL, Aug 26 2020 - Ball by Ball Commentary

Once again the result goes against type in modern T20 strategy as the chasing side struggled mightily. That's it from me and Matt Roller tonight. Thanks for following along. Come back again tomorrow at 10 am local time for another CPL doubleheader. I'm Peter Della Penna. Take care!

Tridents captain Jason Holder: "I thought the guys stuck in long enough. Like I said at the toss it was important for a set batter to go deep. Kyle did that for us today. It was an outstanding knock. He surprised a lot of us. A lot of the shots he played were calculated. He fought through a tough period against the spinners in the middle. We just needed a set batter at the end and it paid off for us. The pitches have gripped, spun and inconsistent bounce too. But you still have to be positive. When you face teams with two or three wristspinners, you have to be smart in how you play them. But it's really really important to have a set bat at the end to guide. We've got a lot of bowling options, some times too many. I was really happy for Hayden Walsh. He came in and did an outstanding job. Ashley came in and bowled well. Mitchell Santner was his normal economical self and Rashid the wicket-taker for us did the job."

Tallawahs captain Rovman Powell: "I think Kyle batted well. We have to give credit where it's due. We didn't stick to our plan in the death overs and it cost us. [On the top order struggles] the games are coming so quick at us we don't have time to get practice in but now that we have a day or two we can work on it. I think [Russell] will be back for the next game."

Kyle Mayers is the obvious choice for Man of the Match: "It feels great. The preparation that I put into it feels good. It was difficult to bat spin. I just tried to play the ball up and down. Captain and coach told me to bat through the innings. [My form] is down to opportunity. Since my [shoulder] injury, I've been given the opportunity to bat earlier and it's paying off."

8.55 pm Another very tepid batting display by the Tallawahs. Their top order in particular continues to struggle. Margin of defeat says 36 runs on the scorecard but it felt like twice that many. The 18th over of the first innings bowled by Brathwaite was pivotal, giving up four sixes to Mayers after Lamichhane and Mujeeb had wrecked the Tridents order. But the ability of Mayers to see both spinners off paid huge dividends in the end. Meanwhile, the Tallawahs could not negotiate the four-pronged spin arsenal of the Tridents, and fared little better against their medium pacers.

Young to bowl the last.

Rashid and Mujeeb both have a laugh after those two sixes. Rashid can afford to with the game this far out of reach. Young on.