Pooran and Narine lead TKR to victory in low-scoring clash

Sunil Narine led a classic TKR spin strangle after Nicholas Pooran's six-hitting set up a defendable total

Trinbago Knight Riders 147 for 6 (Pooran 59, Munro 38, Motie 3-29, Mujeeb 2-22) beat Barbados Tridents 112 (Carter 21, Rutherford 21, Narine 4-12, Goolie 3-20, Kumara 2-30) by 35 runs

Sunil Narine led a classic Trinbago Knight Riders spin strangle after Nicholas Pooran's six-hitting had set them up for a defendable total in a low-scoring CPL 2026 game against Barbados Tridents in Bridgetown.

Tridents were only chasing 148, but they were never really in the game once Narine took three wickets in the powerplay. With Akeal Hosein also striking in the sixth over, Tridents ended that phase at 35 for 4; the scoring never took off, with Usman Tariq coming on and conceding just 25 in his four overs, and Jyd Goolie picking up three wickets with his offspin.

No Tridents batter played a genuinely substantial innings, with opener Zachary Carter and Sherfane Rutherford ending up as joint top-scorers with 21 each. When Narine returned to take the final wicket, Tridents had been bowled out with nine balls unused.Sunil Narine and Jyd Goolie shared seven wickets•CPL T20

The Knight Riders spin quartet of Narine, Hosein, Tariq and Goolie finished with combined figures of 8 for 82 in 14.3 overs, while the fast bowler Lahiru Kumara took two wickets including that of Rutherford.

The only batter on either side to master the conditions for any length of time was Pooran, and he too took his time getting to grips with the challenge, taking ten balls to get off the mark.

Thereafter, however, the big hits began to flow. A whip over the leg side off debutant Jakeem Pollard warmed him up, before he hit three sixes in a row off Mujeeb Ur Rahman in the ninth over and followed up with three more in a row, this time off Gudakesh Motie, in the 14th. A dropped catch from Rivaldo Clarke at deep third, off Jakeem Pollard, may have proved an ultimately pivotal moment; Pooran was batting on 35 off 26 at that point.

Eventually, he scored 59 off 37. Knight Riders scored 96 in 63 balls when Pooran was at the crease, and 51 in 57 balls either side of his innings. Motie took three expensive wickets for Tridents, going for 29 in just two overs, while Mujeeb picked up 2 for 22 in his four overs.