St Lucia Zouks were the favourites to win the CPL 2016 encounter against the Trinbago Knight Riders at the former's backyard. The Darren Sammy-led Zouks were enjoying a three-match unbeaten run at home, but little did they know that Umar Akmal of the Knight Riders would end their run in stunning fashion.
This was a crucial clash for both sides. It was, in fact, more important for the Knight Riders as they could not afford to lose this match, or else their hopes of making it to the final four of CPL 2016 would have been virtually over. But, with this win, Dwayne Bravo & co. have jumped up to the third place in the CPL 2016 points table.
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Knight Riders won the toss and asked St Lucia Zouks to bat first. The Zouks got off to a decent start, but their star of the last match, Johnson Charles, could not make it big in this game against the defending champions.
However, most of their batsmen scored runs, even if nobody played a big innings. Towards the end of their innings, skipper Sammy (37*, 18b, 3x4, 2x6) struck some meaty blows to help his team reach a total of 167 for the loss of six wickets at the end of 20 overs.
It looked like being a tricky run chase, as the wicket was getting slower during the second innings. Knight Riders felt the heat and they kept losing wickets early on.
Yet again, most of their star batsmen failed to make an impact and the Trinbago Knight Riders were in all sorts of trouble as they were reeling at 63 for the loss of five wickets.
Then came the Umar Akmal special. Akmal (73*, 35b, 3x4, 7x6) made sure that he stayed there right till the end, successfully taking his side over the line with an over to spare and three wickets to spare.
