Allen inflicts 6th straight loss for Tridents

KINGSTON: A sparkling half-century by Fabian Allen, in his maiden CPL innings, salvaged a floundering St Kitts and Nevis Patriots chase and took them to victory by two wickets over Barbados Tridents at Warner Park on Tuesday night. Allen made an unbeaten 64 off 34 balls to rescue the Patriots from 92 for 6, including 17 runs off the final over, to pull his team through with two balls to spare.

The win puts Patriots temporarily in first place, though their regular season is now finished. Trinbago Knight Riders and Guyana Amazon Warriors are one point behind, but both have three league fixtures remaining, two of which are against each other.

Patriots' overseas batsman Tom Cooper had a miserable time at CPL 2018. His six innings yielded just 45, and the team management ran out of patience. When he had to head home for the start of Australia's domestic season, the franchise sought a replacement and picked South Africa left-arm wristspinner Tabraiz Shamsi, who was actually filling the void left by Nepal legspinner Sandeep Lamichhane. In his first outing, Shamsi, who is coming off back spasms, suffered during the tour of India with the South Africa A team, left his imprint.

Coming on at the end of the Powerplay, Shamsi struck with just his second ball, trapping Dwayne Smith lbw to end a 45-run opening stand. Smith's opening partner Sunny Sohal fell leg before as well in the next over to Mahmudullah's offspin, pinned on the back foot after shuffling across his crease too far to flick. A poor call for a run to backward point resulted Hashim Amla's run out to make it 66 for 3 at the halfway mark. When Shai Hope was out slogging to mid-off, Shamsi, who did him in with flight, reinforced the advantage.

Shamsi didn't concede a single boundary in his spell of 4-0-16-2. He could have had a third wicket when he beat Roston Chase sweeping, just as he had Smith earlier in the night.