Rutherford and Allen Supercharge unbeaten
Sherfane Rutherford‘s Fine CPL continued with another match-winning hand as he and Fabian Allen mounted a challenging chase in canter to maintain St Kitts and Nevis Patriots. Rutherford and Allen supercharged unbeaten start in the tournament.
The Start of many batsmen:-
On a night where many batsmen could not miss the start – Carlos Brathwaite’s 27 was the top score for the Jamaica Tallawahs – Rutherford became the result.
His stand of 55 off just 20 balls with Allen put the 50-50 chase on hold when Ravi departed in the 15th over to leave the Patriots 114 for 4 in the 15th over.
Patriots needed 50 when Fabian Allen helped Andre Russell pick up 17 runs in an over to turn the tide. West Indies coach Phil Simmons, watching from the stands, would have thoughts seeing Russell flexing his leg repeatedly.
The next over decided the competition when Rutherford and Allen hit three sixes off Miguel Pretorius. the second two came off a top edge that interim fielder Kirk McKenzie could not go down. After this, Fabian sealed the match by hitting the number of sixes in a span of 14 balls.
The Fast block of patriots:-
The Patriots were swiftly out of the block, but were pulled back when Thomas slipped and struggled Asif Ali was caught in the front.
Evin Lewis who was given life at 24 by Tallawah’s stand-in wicketkeeper Kenner Lewis was shaping up to play crucial innings before Rovman took over the summit.
Kenner Lewis had the gloves on after Chadwick Walton suffered a hamstring injury during the first innings, forcing him to retire for 26 in the eighth over.
It was around that appointed time that the Patriots had a firm grip on the scoring rate.
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The next seven overs till halfway brought 31, including Bravo with the ball took a clean return catch with one hand to remove Haider Ali.
15 runs in five balls from Pretorius:-
Brathwaite moved up the scoring rate, but lost his off-stump attempting to lap Sheldon Cottrell. This time there was no campaign from Russell. the toe with a short ball against the resultant Paul van Meeckeren. Pretorius’ 15 off five balls determined 160 runs were scored but in the end it proved much less than abundant.