The South African duo of Chris Green and Quinton de Kock produced match-winning performances to push the Barbados Tridents within one win of the Caribbean Premier League playoffs via a nervy four-wicket win over the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots on Thursday.
Green’s decision to bowl first paid dividends for the Tridents, with his four-wicket haul putting his side in a perfect position to win the crucial contest, as the visitors were bowled over for a below par 118 in 20 overs at Kensington Oval.
The diminutive de Kock then used all of his experience in his unbeaten knock of 44 off 43 balls to help the home side recover from a tricky position of 27 for three and get up to 120 for six with 12 balls remaining.
With the defeat, the Patriots were eliminated from the tournament without reaching the playoffs for the fifth straight year.
On the other hand, the Tridents who were dead last two matches ago, moved up to fourth position on eight points with two matches remaining against the Jamaica Kingsmen and Guyana Amazon Warriors.
A win against either will secure a top four spot, while two losses could see them drop out of the playoffs on net run rate.
Needing a victory to have any possible chance of staying in the competition, the Patriots got off to the worst possible start with Green bowling Johnson Charles for a duck with the second ball of the match and Daniel Sams having Kyle Mayers caught behind, also for a duck, to leave them nought for two in the second over.
When Green bowled Andre Fletcher for four and had Alick Athanaze caught for 16, the Patriots were in dire straits at 27 for four in the seventh over.
Green then trapped Dasun Shanaka lbw for six and Gudakesh Motie accounted for the wicket of Jason Holder two balls later to see the Patriots collapse to 51 for six.
Wanindu Hasaranga saved their blushes with a counterattacking knock of 45 from 25 balls, which helped to get his side into triple figures.
Player-of-the-Match Green ended with figures of 4-20, while Sams (2-21) and Motie (2-30) provided good support.
Faced with a required run rate of less than six runs an over, Holder had Brandon King caught behind with the third ball of the innings without a run on the board.
The lanky pacer then produced another unplayable outswinger to Rivaldo Clarke that he could only edge behind to the wicketkeeper three balls later to leave the Tridents four for two.
Zachary Carter hit Holder for two consecutive boundaries, but perished trying to pull a short pitched delivery that only made it as far as deep square leg where Hasaranga took a good catch to reduce them to 27 for three.
But de Kock formed handy partnerships with Shadrack Descarte, with whom he added 38 runs, and Sherfane Rutherford, who contributed 23 runs to their 39-run stand for the fifth wicket, which took the Tridents to relative safety.
Following the dismissals of Rutherford and Green, Sams clobbered Nivan Bidaisee for a six over long off to bring the match to an end with two overs to spare. (CMC)
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