Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) emerged victorious in the 2020 edition of the CPL (Caribbean Premier League) after scoring an 8-wicket win over St Lucia Zouks on September 10. TKR was ably led by Kieron Pollard and they won all 12 of their games this season.
In the title decider, Pollard grabbed 4 wickets to limit St Lucia Zouks to just 154. Fawad Ahmed contributed with 2 scalps for TKR, while Andre Fletcher with 39 hit the top score for the Zouks. Darren Bravo and Lendl Simmons then formed an unbroken partnership of 138 runs to help TKR win by eight wickets. Bravo smacked 58, while Simmons was the top scorer with 84.
Knight Riders is the first team in the CPL history to win all games during a season. They achieved victory in the final without their star player Sunil Narine who had been dropped. During the chase, the turning point came in the 17th over which was bowled by a relative newcomer, Afghanistan player Zahir Khan, who delivers left-arm wrist spin. KTR clobbered 23 runs in this over to reduce the target from 41 needed in 24 deliveries to just run a ball.
After that, Simmons smacked 16 in Scott Kuggeleijn’s over including a four and a six to finish the game in a robust manner. In total, Simmons smashed 4 sixes and 8 fours and Bravo 6 sixes and 2 fours. While bowling, TKR captained Pollard cleverly varied his slower deliveries on a somewhat placid pitch to restrict Zouks to just 154 runs after they had sped away for 77/1 initially.
Mark Deyal scored 29 in 27, Fletcher 39 in 27 and Roston Chase 22 in 14 to support the Zouks total. However, they lost their final six wickets for just 39 runs in a mere six overs and were bundled out in 19.1 overs. Apart from Pollard, leggie Fawad Ahmed with 2/22 and seamer Ali Khan with 2 for 25 shone with the ball for the Knight Riders.