When AB de Villiers decides to take the onus on his broad shoulders, the rest of the batsmen in the squad can sit back and relax and watch the master play his ridiculously-brilliant shots. The world-class South African batsman did it again for Barbados Tridents in Match 14 of CPL 2016 against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots at the Kensington Oval on Wednesday.
Tridents outplayed the Patriots by 25 runs and registered their second victory of CPL 2016. As a result of this win, the Tridents have now moved into the top three of the CPL 2016 points table while the Patriots are bottom after suffering their fifth defeat of the tournament.
Faf du Plessis won the toss and asked Tridents to bat first. Du Plessis misread the wicket and paid the price for it at the end.
However, Tridents did not get off to a good start as they lost two early wickets and were under pressure. But De Villiers made it look so easy. He played the anchor role and made sure that the Tridents reach a good total at the end of 20 overs. De Villiers cruised to 82 from just 54 balls (9x4, 3x6) in his innings.
Nicholas Pooran (38, 19b, 2x4, 4x6) and Tridents captain Kieron Pollard (27, 21b, 2x6) played good supporting roles to help their side reach a total of 180 runs for the loss of six wickets.
Sheldon Cottrell (4-0-25-3) was the pick of the bowlers for Patriots.
The target was steep and St Kitts and Nevis Patriots batsmen had to bat sensibly to get to the target. But they were not, as they kept losing wickets.
Patriots' skipper Du Plessis (42, 34b, 5x4) and Jonathan Carter (46, 38b, 1x4, 2x6) were the only two batsmen who showed some resistance.
Tridents bowlers were right on the money and made minimal errors. Ravi Rampaul, Akeal Hosein and leg-spinner Imran Khan picked up a couple of wickets each.
