The Trinbago Knight Riders beat the St Lucia Zouks in the Eliminator by 5 wickets.
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Runs from Brendon McCullum and wickets for Ronsford Beaton allowed defending champions Knight Riders to secure victory by five wickets with nine balls to spare at Warner Park, Basseterre, at St Kitts.
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The Tallawahs, winners of the inaugural Caribbean Premier League, are facing a must win game if they are to qualify for the final on 7 August.
After a slow start in the first two overs, Johnson Charles (31) hit two sixes and a four and along with Andre Fletcher (41) as St Lucia Zouks reached 52 for naught in the powerplay after they were sent into bat first.
With this victory, Trinbago Knight Riders proceed to the third playoff and will face Jamaica Tallawahs on Friday with the victor progressing to the final. After partnerships of 89 and 107 in the matches that were played in Florida, the duo added 62 runs for the first wicket, aided by three dropped chances.
Possible XI: Hashim Amla, Brendon McCullum, Colin Munro, Umar Akmal, Dwayne Bravo (c), Denesh Ramdin (wk), Anton Devcich, Kevon Cooper, Sunil Narine, Nikita Miller, Ronsford Beaton. In all, Trinbago dropped seven catches during the St Lucia innings.
Michael Hussey (0) was run out in the ninth over, leaving St Lucia Zouks at 74 for three at the halfway mark. While all this chaos happened at the other end, Fletcher remained at the crease but it affected his scoring rate. He was on 30 from 22 balls when Charles was dismissed.
The wickets just kept falling with Beaton the chief destroyer as he finished with figures of 3 for 23, his best return of this Hero CPL at one point taking the wickets of Grant Elliott and Gidron Pope in successive balls. Eventually the Zouks reached 164-8 with 34 runs coming off the last two overs. Delorn Johnson has only played in seven of the Zouks’ 11 matches so far this season but here he passed Shane Watson as the leading wicket taker for the St Lucian team this season.
Trinbago Knight Riders lost Hashim Amla (10) in the very first over.
Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal was elevated to the opening spot and did a good job, scoring 30 runs in 15 deliveries that included 5 boundaries and a six. McCullum went on to make 49 not out and was well supported by Sunil Narine, who made 22 runs from 14 balls to see their side home.
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Colin Munro was dismissed five balls later, and Trinbago looked in danger of sacrificing their good start. Total (for 8 wkts in 20 overs) 164.
