Royals out TKR’S light in Caribbean Premier League

Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) champions Trinbago Knight Riders team was out of the 2024 season on Oct. 1 when they suffered a nine-wicket loss to Barbados Royals via the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) Method in a contentious eliminator match at the Providence Stadium in Guyana.

Batting first, TKR’s total was 168 for three after 19.1 overs, but their innings stopped when a lighting outage at the venue saw three of the lighting towers at the venue losing power.

Guyana’s Minister of Culture, Youth, and Sport, Charles Ramson, explained that the stadium lights lost power due to a “damaged underground cable.”

He thanked the workers for rescuing the situation and allowing the game to continue.

TKR’s star batsman Nicholas Pooran was on 91 not out at the time of the outage and was nearing a second consecutive CPL ton; the players were asked to leave the field at approximately 9 p.m. Lengthy deliberations with captains Kieron Pollard and Rovman Powell, with CPL CEO Pete Russell and operations director Michael Hall spearheading the critical on-field discourse.

TKR appeared to be headed for the second qualifier on Oct. 4 by their third-placed finish on the CPL table as the game was halted for two hours with a cut-off time for the resumption of the game set at 10.52 p.m. However, minutes before the appointed cut-off period, the Royals got a lifeline as the power was restored.

With five overs constituting a match in the 120 format, Barbados was set a revised target of 60 runs.

On the back of a ruthless unbeaten innings of 50 from 17 balls by David Miller, the Royals won with four balls to spare as Terrance Hinds was drilled for a pair of sixes.

A bitterly tough pill for TKR to swallow, captain Kieron Pollard said, “Once the lights were on…we were always ready and willing to play within the rules and regulations of the game.”

Conversely, Powell and the Royals counted their lucky stars after being on the brink of elimination.

“I think it’s a case of us getting lucky tonight, to be honest. At one point, we thought we were out of the competition when the lights started giving problems,” the Royals captain said.

“But we knew once the lights came back at a certain time, it was our game to lose. Five overs, 60 runs. Not very difficult.”

Pooran had set up TKR’s innings beautifully, and they were filled with six fours, five sixes, and a clear intention to bat out the innings. In the process, Pooran went past the 500-run mark to reach the top of the batting charts for 2024.