Tallawahs vs Trinbago, 1st Semi-Final at Tarouba, CPL, Sep 08 2020 - Match Result

That's it from us for the first semi-final at Brian Lara Academy. Check out the report from Sreshth Shah. Come back in about four hours for coverage of the second semi-final scheduled for 5.30 pm local time between Guyana Amazon Warriors and St Lucia Zouks as Danyal Rasool arrives to be my tag team partner once more. For Sreshth, I'm Peter Della Penna. Take care!

TKR captain Kieron Pollard: "Getting this far now, there's still a big picture which is on Thursday. We have to keep it level, enjoy our victory as we've been doing all tournament but still come back Thursday and play a better game than we did today. When you look at their lineup, it's all batsmen who like the ball coming onto the bat. The pitches here in the Caribbean these days give natural variations and they have to manufacture shots. Hence the reason why you saw 16 overs of spin bowling today. Sometimes you need to just sit back and watch these guys. Akeal has been around a very long time. It's good to see these guys using their talent and coming onto the international scene and showing the world what they can do. Coming into this tournament, he didn't start the tournament and he was dejected, but knowing fully well what his role was going to be. He has come in and taken his opportunity and continues each and every game to improve. We haven't seen the other side of him. I think he's a better batsman than a bowler. We have come here and played fantastic cricket throughout the tournament and we need the cherry on top of it. Looking around the dressing room, you don't see overconfidence. You see guys who want to improve each and every time out."

Tallawahs captain Rovman Powell: "[On the impact of the toss] Probably if I won the toss I would have batted also. It's just that we lost four wickets in the Powerplay. The stats show that when you lose four wickets in the Powerplay, it generally ends in defeat. It was a lot of inconsistent cricket. The batters didn't stand up all season. We asked our international batters to bat most of the overs and we just didn't do that. I wouldn't change a lot. The batters just didn't come to the party. Our bowlers handled ourselves very well. Two international spinners handled us very well in the middle overs and even when we started. The pace bowlers were good. The fielding was a little bit off here and there but it was a problem of the batters not scoring enough runs. It's good to see Fidel Edwards back firing and Andre Russell back fit and we wish him the best going off to the IPL."

Akeal Hosein named Man of the Match for his 3 for 14: "It's a great feeling just to be out there to be able to give 100% for my team and be able to perform as well as I did today. It was fun to bowl on. I was getting the ball to swing and spin. I've been sitting in my room telling myself I've been doing pretty decent so far and all I needed was a Man of the Match performance and I'm really glad that I can do that today. [On coming out of the Laventille area south of Port of Spain] A lot of negative things have been said about that particular area. I'm going to say it's the most pleasant area but it just goes to show that there are people who can come out of that area and do well for themselves. I hope that they can reach out and still give a hand and help these people in these sort of areas."

12.55 pm Clinical, disciplined and merciless in the second innings chase just as they were with the ball. The Trinbago Knight Riders juggernaut cannot be stopped in 2020. Tallawahs season ends with a whimper, five-match winless streak and this was the most lifeless display of that stretch. The match really was not what you expect out of a semi-final, one-sided literally from beginning to end. The Knight Riders now await the winner of the second semi-final between Guyana Amazon Warriors and St Lucia Zouks, beginning in four and a half hours from now.

Brathwaite into the attack for the first time today.

Lamichhane back for his final over. Slip in.

Slight delay as Simmons is sucking wind with his helmet off between overs. It's hot, even for the local batsmen, has been all tourney.