Rutherford’s half-century instrumental in Patriots’ win over TKR in CPL 2022

By Brandon Corlette

A career-best knock of 78 from Sherfane Rutherford has helped the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots record a seven-run win against the Trinbago Knight Riders at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence.
Having posted 163-6 in 20 overs, the Patriots restricted TKR to 156-7 in 20 overs through collective bowling efforts from Sheldon Cottrell and Guyanese Kevin Sinclair.
In pursuit of the target, TKR had a slow start, with Leonardo Julien departing for one at 5-1, and Colin Munro making only three before being trapped by Kevin Sinclair, who made his Patriots debut.

Kieron Pollard promoted himself to number four and attempted to rebuild with Tim Seifert, but Pollard was living a charmed life, being given not out leg-before twice to Rashid Khan, and being dropped. The big Trinidadian was also peppered by Rutherford with some testing short-balls before he teed off against Akila Dananjaya, the man he once slammed for six maximums when he was skipper of the West Indies. Pollard slammed him for consecutive sixes, but Dwyane ‘The Champion’ Bravo removed his counterpart when he held out to long-on for a 36-ball 31.
Pollard, who departed with TKR on 79-3 in 12.2 overs, added 57 runs with Seifert, and the New Zealander continued to occupy the crease, turning on the heat when he switch-hit Sinclair for a six. The Berbician Sinclair then got his revenge by claiming his second wicket when he removed Nicholas Pooran (15) by way of stumping.

Seifert reached his half-century in 42 balls, but his innings ended after he had scored 59 from 47 balls. Andre Russell came and threatened with a 17-ball 29, but Cottrell held his nerve to execute a good final over and help the Patriots clinch victory. He ended with 3-33 in four overs, while Sinclair had 2-18 in his quota.
Earlier, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots won the toss and opted to bat first on the same Providence surface that was used on Wednesday.
Trinbago Knight Riders got the early wicket of Andre Fletcher, who laboured for his two from 12 balls.

At 12-1 after 3.1 overs, Keacy Carty joined Evin Lewis, but runs were difficult to come by. Carty played a poor shot and was bowled by Akeal Hosein for five, as Patriots slipped to 20-2 in 6.2 overs.
Eight runs later, Lewis departed for 15 from 19 balls to give Samit Patel a wicket, but Darren Bravo and the dangerous Rutherford added 66 runs from 54 balls to put Patriots back on track. Bravo struck a promising 23 from 21 balls in an innings that included two fours and one six.
Rutherford showed his class in hitting the ball clean. The left-handed Rutherford and Dewald Brevis added 57 runs together in the death overs. Rutherford slammed five sweet sixes and six fours, while Brevis slammed five sixes in six balls, ending on 30 not out.

The penultimate over, which was bowled by Hosein, yielded 30 runs, as Patriots posted a strong total of 163-6 in 20 overs. South African pacer Daryn Dupavillon had 3-38 from four overs for TKR.
Patriots have completed their league matches, and have scored eight points.