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TKR won by 8 wickets

08:19 AM IST, 10:49 PM IST: A comfortable victory for the Trinbago Knight Riders as they move into the second position with this 8-wicket victory over the Antigua & Barbuda Falcons. A fine start to the home leg with Keacy Carty and Alex Hales registering fifties while Nicholas Pooran applied the finishing touches to take the side home with 8 balls to spare.

Chasing 147 for victory, TKR got off to a decent start with the Falcons’ seamers erring in line and length. However, Colin Munro struggled to score nine off 10 balls before he found Karima Gore’s safe hands at deep square-leg off Shakib Al Hasan’s bowling in the 4^th over. There were no more casualties in the Powerplay for TKR after that though as they finished the phase with 42/1 on the board.

The duo of Alex Hales and Keacy Carty patiently built a partnership with TKR moving to 70/1 at the half-way stage of the innings. Carty, in particular, played some elegant strokes as he went onto register his 3^rd CPL fifty. The Falcons also failed to take an opportunity to break the partnership with Andries Gous missing out on a stumping opportunity off Karima Gore’s bowling when Alex Hales was on 33. It was Jayden Seales who eventually broke the 87-run partnership by dismissing Carty in the 16th over but it was too late by then.

On the way to victory, Hales brought up his 88th fifty in T20 and thereby equaled Chris Gayle's number of fifties as well. In the end, Pooran struck a huge maximum to help TKR register their first win against the Falcons in 4 attempts.

Earlier in the match, Mohammad Amir came up with a stunning first over as he dismissed Rahkeem Cornwall and Karima Gore for ducks. Jewel Andrew held one end together by striking a few boundaries as the Falcons closed out the Powerplay at 43/2. However, Andries Gous didn't get going at all and was castled by Akeal Hosein for 14 in the seventh over.

Akeal also had Shakib Al Hasan caught at short fine-leg off the last ball of his spell as the Falcons went nowhere in their innings. The score soon became 71/6 with Andre Russell taking two wickets in the space of three balls in the 12th over. Then, Usama Mir came in and played 11 dot balls before getting off the mark while he also had a reprieve later on with TKR not reviewing a caught-behind opportunity. The lower-order batter took advantage and smashed 34 off 26 balls which included three maximums. 

It was only in the penultimate over that Amir removed Usama to break the 64-run stand with Imad Wasim. In the meantime, the skipper Imad had also pulled his quad muscle but he held on to strike a couple of boundaries in the final over to help the Falcons finish with 146/7. At the end of the innings, Imad had to be helped to the dressing room by the physio and he didn't turn out for the 2nd innings as well due to the injury.

Mohammad Amir (POTM): "I think the wicket was offering early on. I always try to swing the ball when there's a little help. I think I was using the wicket very well, that is my role with the new ball. 

(On crowd support) It is amazing to be honest. I think people will come in the next few games, the crowd always supports us. 

(On his celebration) I saw the video on social media, I think he's from Indonesia; he was doing this in a video. Everyone is doing something on social media, so I thought why not me today. (On his fitness) Yeah, all good.

Imad Wasim (Antigua & Barbuda Falcons Captain): "It is alright, we will have a scan and see. We were 20 or 30 runs short. It was a decent wicket to bat on. Losing wickets in clusters doesn't help. These are the mistake we are repeating. The bowlers did unbelievably well to stretch the game to the 19th over. It is the latter part of the tournament, so we have to be on it from ball one. It is just another game. You win some, you lose some but the approach towards the game should be right."

Nicholas Pooran (Trinbago Knight Riders Captain): "It feels good to win. Definitely against Antigua, they have beaten in the last three encounters. Feels good to put in a performance like this today. 

No, I don't think we had something special planned for their openers. Amir led the way for us. All the bowlers chipped in.

The discipline. We know, we can't blast teams out. We have to work hard to get the win. CPL is a tough tournament, lots of quality players in every team and lots of good local players as well. 

Trinidad is amazing and we know whenever we come here, they turn up, hope we continue to put smiles on their faces."

So, that is it from myself, Karthik Raj, my co-commentator, Ajay and our scorer, Raju Khariya as we wrap up the coverage of this fixture. Do stay tuned to our network and catch up on a lot more cricketing action later on Thursday!