Carlos Brathwaite’s all-round brilliance downs TKR in Super Over

The Trinbago Knight Riders would’ve gone into the innings break thinking they have enough. Powered by yet another Lendl Simmons half-century, the three-time champions helped themselves to another 200-plus total, against St Kitts & Nevis Patriots, putting themselves in a commanding position to pocket their fifth win on the bounce.
And despite the best efforts of Evin Lewis (45 off 21) and Carlos Brathwaite (64 off 30), the overwhelming thought of being just moments away from securing the game would’ve resurfaced towards the end of the chase when the hosts were left to get 19 off the final over.
But stranger things have happened, and have happened recently in games that involve James Neesham, who was tasked with defending those runs. He erred – with two foot faults, his team erred with sloppy fielding, and Rayad Emrit took advantage of both these lapses to power through to a final-ball four that pushed the game into a Super Over.



Brathwaite, fresh from his blitzkrieg in chase, took the task upon himself and smashed USA’s Ali Khan on the way to an 18-run over to turn the tables on TKR. Now they needed 19 from 6 balls. Brathwaite then walked out to take charge with the ball, despite coach Robin Singh’s suggestion of bowling Alzarri Joseph, and stood vindicated as he defended the score to shut the lid on a manic fixture at the Warner Park in St. Kitts.
For the third game in a row, Simmons led Trinbago Knight Riders’ charge – following up his 63 off 39 (vs St Lucia Zouks) and 86 off 42 (Jamaica Tallawahs) with a splendid 45-ball 90 against St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots to put his side on top of the points table. Simmons’s essay – including nine fours and six sixes – took the Knight Riders to yet another 200-plus total.

The Knight Riders flew off the blocks via Simmons and Mark Deyal after Brathwaite decided to insert them in to bat first. Akeem Jordan and Sheldon Cottrell made a horror start with the ball, prompting Brathwaite to bring himself on as early as the fourth over. He too was hit for a couple of boundaries before he broke the opening stand by getting rid of Deyal for a 10-ball 21. Simmons carried on – as expected in this format – to play his shots, hitting Rayad Emrit for three fours in just the next over while the Knight Riders’ match-winner from the previous game – Colin Munro – tried to resume from where he’d left off a couple of days ago.

Knight Riders had 76 runs in the first six overs and Simmons got to his third successive fifty this season off just 26 balls. Brathwaite was in desperate need of a bowler or two who could arrest the slide but found none as the new pair smashed 46 in the four overs post the PowerPlay, taking their side to 122 for 1 in 10 overs. Five off Simmons’s six sixes came off Alzarri Joseph and Mohammad Hafeez before he departed in the 12th over to Cottrell for an incredible 45-ball 90.

The bowling side attempted to stage a late coup with two more quick wickets – of Munro and Kieron Pollard – but Darren Bravo and James Neesham came together and ensured there was no sudden downturn in the run-scoring after an elaborate set up in the first half. As many as 60 runs came off the last 30 balls as Knight Riders finished with 216 for 4.
The first real signal of intent from the hosts – and Evin Lewis in particular – came in the fourth over, when the West Indian opener ripped Jimmy Neesham to shreds with three fours and three sixes in a 31-run over. The chasing side lost two wickets early but had 67 on the board at the end of the PowerPlay overs, which set them up for the scrap to follow.



There was a brief post-PowerPlay struggle for boundaries as Lewis and Mohammad Hafeez departed, but in came Brathwaite to get the team back on track. Like Lewis, he too took a liking for Neesham, and two other bowlers who operated in the middle overs (Seekugge Prasanna and Anderson Phillip, who’d taken three of the four wickets to fall).
From 93 for 4 at the halfway stage, Brathwaite and Shamarh Brooks drove their side to 155 for 4 in 15 overs, keeping TKR bowlers on their toes. The game took another 180 degree turn in the next two overs as both Brooks and Brathwaite departed, giving TKR a chance to tighten the screws. Quite the opposite of that ensued as Emrit and Fabien Allen laid into Pollard in the 18th over, smashing three sixes in a 19-run over to bring down the equation to 25 off 12 balls.

Ali Khan bowled an exceptional penultimate over, conceding just six and accounting for Allen’s wicket. But the pressure was still on and it showed as TKR cracked under it during the final over where Emrit took 18 off Neesham [who finished with forgettable figures of 4-0-70-0] and dragged the game into the Super Over face-off.
Brief Scores: Trinbago Knight Riders 216/4 in 20 overs (Lendl Simmons 90; Carlos Brathwaite 2-48) tied with St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots 216/7 in 20 overs (Carlos Brathwaite 64, Evin Lewis 45; Anderson Phillip 3-38). St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots won the Super Over.