CPL 2021 | Tim Seifert’s last-minute heroics not enough as St Lucia defeat Trinbago for the first time since 2016

Tim Seifert had almost won it for Trinabgo Knight Riders with his 16 ball 40, but for the brilliant last over by Wahab Riaz who made sure that St Lucia Kings register their first-ever win since 2016 against the team from Trinidad and Tobago.  

When Seifert walked in, the chances of a Trinbago victory were hanging by the thread as their captain and most charismatic batter in Kieron Pollard had been caught out and still, 56 more runs were needed from 21 balls for a win. 

However, on the very first ball that he faced, the Kiwi hit a four and in the next over hit 14 off Alzarri Joseph. Though in the end, he might regret the three dot balls that he ate up in that over. 

He more than made up for it in the nineteenth over, hitting 20 off Keemo Paul’s five deliveries to bring the target down to 14 off the last over. But the drama got to another level in the last over. 

After hitting a four on the first ball and taking a single on the next to bring Seifert back on strike, Colin Munro wouldn’t have thought that he would have to run a bye on the fifth ball because Seifert could only score only a single on the two balls that he faced and with seven needed from the last two balls when Munro wasn’t able to get bat on ball, he had to run a bye and nearly got run out as Spiceman Andre Fletcher hit the stumps from behind the wicket. 

But even with two batters almost at the same end, no one got run out as Munro, who was on strike hadn’t left the crease before the ball hit the stumps, and although Seifert was still to get into the crease at the batting end, ideally he would have had to be run out at the non-striker’s end. Thus after all the confusion, the run was given and it all came down to a six from the last ball. Riaz bowled a bouncer which hit Seifert on the chest and he could get only a single. Thus a hard-earned victory was Kings’ to enjoy after a devastating defeat in their first clash against the Jamaica Tallawahs. 

Earlier in the morning, after losing the toss and being asked to bat first, the Kings got a brilliant start as their openers took the score past 50 in only five overs. However, with Ravi Rampaul striking thrice, the Kings were shortly 69-4 with two new batters in Roston Chase and Tim David at the crease. David, in his style of attack from the word go, managed to keep the scoreboard rolling at a nice pace even as Chase took time settling down.

The two added 68 runs for the fifth wicket and with Keemo Paul’s lusty blows, in the end, the Kings managed to get to 157 from their 20 overs. 

The two teams would now go head to head in another round of battle at the same venue of Warner Park, Basseterre after one day's rest. The two will now collide on August 31 at 07:30 pm IST.