Republic Bank CPL: Miller single-handedly leads Royals into Qualifier 2

An unexpected and most entertaining of chases propelled the Barbados Royals to an exhilarating victory over the Trinbago Knight Riders in the first Eliminator of the Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) held at the Guyana National Stadium.
The Barbados Royals did well to contain the Knight Riders’ explosive batting and shared some fireworks of their own to book a spot in Friday’s Qualifier 2, against the loser of tonight’s Qualifier 1.
As the contest unfolded, Knight Riders Captain Kieron Pollard won the toss and opted to bat first, the first of what would be many mistakes for the four-time champions.
The Knight Riders were off to a slow start, racking up just 24 runs in the first four overs. However, it was the fifth over and Jason Holder’s second where Jason Roy and Nicholas Pooran were finally able to free their arms.
Pooran set the tempo for the massive over with a pair of sixes off the first two balls of the over. He found the boundary in the next ball and after two, much-welcomed quiet deliveries from Holder, Roy joined the party with a Republic Bank Maximum for 23 runs in the over.
Captain Rovman Powell immediately made the necessary adjustments to the bowling, bringing Naveen Ul-Haq with his international experience back into the attack and it paid dividends as Roy sent his sixth delivery into the hands of David Miller inside the circle.

Ensuing overs from Ramon Simmonds, Rahkeem Cornwall, Maheesh Theekshana and Obed McCoy kept the Knight Riders in harness, even with Pollard and a fire-breathing Pooran at the crease.
Visibly struggling to get going on 17 from 18 balls, Pollard decided to go after Barbados’ youngster Simmonds but misjudged what the 22-year-old was about to serve up. Pollard launched a massive strike, but missed everything, throwing his bat into the air as the ball crashed into his stumps.
As Pooran began to accelerate, the unthinkable happened. Three of the light towers at the Guyana National Stadium went down completely, forcing the players and officials to leave the pitch. By that point, the Knight Riders were 168-3 after 19.1 overs.
Pooran had notched a magnificent 91 off 60, laced with six fours and five sixes, while Andre Russell was also unbeaten on 20 from 18.
As the hundreds of spectators at the National Stadium were left clueless, the powers that be worked assiduously to rectify the problem with the lights. After one failed attempt to get the lights on, where two out of three towers powered up, the three lights finally came on at 22:51h, just 10 minutes before the five-over cut-off.
The encounter resumed at 23:01h, with the Barbados Royals chasing 60 runs in just five overs.

Sunil Narine was entrusted with the first over by Captain Pollard and was dispatched over the boundary for four by his second ball. However, the experienced spinner rebounded with Quinton de Kock’s prized wicket in the next ball.
However, that wicket did not bring the resolution that the Knight Riders hoped for as David Miller was upgraded to number three. Miller slammed the likes of Narine, Chris Jordan (who both bowled two overs) and Terrance Hinds to race to a quickfire 50* from 17 deliveries, including three fours and five sixes to lift Barbados to 64-1 in 4.2 overs.

Floodlights issue
In a joint statement, it was revealed, “The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) wish to inform the public of the loss of three of the six floodlights at the National Stadium during the nineteenth over of the match between Trinidad Knight Riders and the Barbados Royals tonight.

“All CPL matches at the Providence Stadium, Guyana were successfully powered from independent generating sets located in the National Stadium and not by GPL grid. GPL has been on standby at all matches to render technical assistance to the Stadium at all times.
During the nineteenth over, three floodlights that were powered by an independent generator lost power, thus causing a disruption to the match. The GPL technical team on standby immediately began rendering assistance and restored power to two of three floodlights on the same circuit. The Stadium’s technical staff and GPL worked assiduously to restore power to the third floodlight, which had a technical fault with the underground cable feeding power to that floodlight; a substitute cable was installed quickly to have this floodlight operational. This was achieved around 10.51 pm.
The technical team remedied the problem and the game resumed. Additional technical assessment will be done immediately after the game to avoid any reoccurrence.”
The Republic Bank CPL continues today with the Guyana Amazon Warriors taking on the St Lucia Kings in Qualifier 1 from 19:00h.