Trinbago Knight Riders sealed a third Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) title with a commanding eight-wicket victory over Guyana Amazon Warriors at the Brian Lara Academy on Sunday night.
The best two teams in this season’s competition have now met four times in the last two weeks and won two games apiece, but this was the one that really mattered and it went decisively the Knight Riders’ way.
Fittingly, it was Colin Munro who hit the winning runs having become the first batsman both to pass 500 runs and then to score six half-centuries in a single Hero CPL season. His brutal 68* from 39 balls eased his team past a target of 148 after fellow New Zealander Brendon McCullum had got the run-chase off to a flying start with 39 off 24.
Munro brought up his latest 50 from just 33 balls with successive sixes off Rayad Emrit, adding a third Hero Maximum in a 27-run 17th over that effectively ended the contest.
That onslaught left just four runs needed from the last 18 balls, and after collecting two runs from the first ball of the 18th over Munro then slashed the third to the boundary to spark wild celebrations from his team-mates and in the stands.

It was the bowlers, though, who had done most of the heavy lifting to secure back-to-back titles for the Knight Riders, with the Warriors – who have now lost four Hero CPL finals – left to rue a dramatic batting collapse in the second half of their innings.
All the Knight Riders bowlers played their part in restricting the Warriors to 147/9. Dwayne Bravo was able to use just his five main bowlers, including himself, with all five getting something in the wickets column and none going for more than eight an over.

Ali Khan made the perfect start, ripping out Cameron Delport’s off stump with the very first ball of the night. He finished with 1/20 from four exemplary overs to end a fine Hero CPL campaign with 16 wickets to his name.
One man who had an even better season, though, is Fawad Ahmed, who grabbed his 22nd and perhaps most significant wicket when he removed Shimron Hetmyer. After hitting a googly straight back over the bowler’s head for six, Hetmyer was suckered by a similar but slightly slower delivery. He reached for it, and this time could only edge it to slip where Dwayne Bravo was waiting and claimed huge reward for holding his nerve and maintaining an attacking field.
Luke Ronchi was holding the innings together but his departure for a well-made 44 from 35, chipping Khary Pierre to deep cover, triggered a collapse from 79/2 to 109/8. Pierre himself snagged two more wickets, including an outrageous caught and bowled to see off Sherfane Rutherford. The ball was drilled back at the bowler, who jerked his head out of the way and stuck up his hands. Remarkably, the ball stuck in his right hand and a disbelieving Rutherford had to drag himself from the field.

Dwayne Bravo’s aggressive field setting struck again when Chadwick Walton edged Pierre to slip, while the captain landed two significant blows of his own with both Jason Mohammed and Chris Green top-edging surprise bouncers to be caught.
Sunil Narine, bowling through the pain of a shoulder injury, had Sohail Tanvir caught at short third-man attempting a slog-sweep.
At 109/8 the Warriors were sinking without a trace, but Shepherd, Emrit and Imran Tahir scrambled 39 from the last four overs to give themselves something to bowl at.
It never really looked like being enough, though, with the Warriors only managing to dismiss McCullum, caught at cover off Green, and then Ramdin for 24 when he clattered his own stumps having gone too deep in his crease against Shepherd.
Darren Bravo was forced to retire hurt after seeming to injure a hamstring completing a single, but that was the only real negative on another glorious night for the Knight Riders.
Summarized Scores:
Trinbago Knight Riders 150/2 (Munro 68*, McCullum 39, Shepherd 1/29) beat Guyana Amazon Warriors 147/9 (Ronchi 44, Pierre 3/29, DJ Bravo 2/30) by eight wickets with 15 balls remaining.

Third one-day international, Stormont
Ireland 124 (36.1 overs): Wilson 23; Rashid 3-18, Alam 2-22
Afghanistan 127-2 (23.5 ovs): Janat 57, Shahidi 34*; Rankin 1-30. Afghanistan won by eight wickets.
Afghanistan cruised to an eight-wicket win over Ireland to clinch a 2-1 victory in the ODI series at Stormont.
Ireland were 34-1 before three wickets fell for five runs to spark a collapse and Gary Wilson (23) top-scored as the hosts were dismissed for just 124.
Rashid Khan took 3-18 in a sun-kissed Belfast and opener Ihsanullah Janat hit an unbeaten 57 as the tourists cruised to 127-2 with over 26 overs to spare.
Afghanistan won the opener before the Irish levelled the series last Wednesday. Friday's decider was expected to be a tight encounter but it became a one-sided affair as Ireland struggled once again with the bat.
The three quick wickets of captain William Porterfield, who elected to bat first, Niall O'Brien and Andrew Balbirnie saw the Irish slip to 39-4.
Kevin O'Brien (16) and Wilson put on a 32-run partnership before the wickets began to tumble again and a total of 124 was always going be tough to defend.
Spinner Rashid was ably backed up by Aftab Alam (2-22), Mohammed Nabi (2-26) and Gulbadin Naib (2-34).
The early dismissal of captain Mohammad Shahzad by Boyd Rankin left the Afghans at 3-1 to give Ireland a glimmer of hope.
Janat and Rahmat Shah Zurmatai (33) added 50 before Tim Murtagh (1-39) took the second and final wicket of the innings.
Hashmatullah Shahidi (34*) and Janat, who smacked two sixes, steered Afghanistan to an impressive win to follow up their 2-0 victory in last week's T20 series at Bready.

Afghanistan, the rising Asian side, may come in the upcoming Asia Cup with a lethal surprise package to shock opponents as the team has named three uncapped players in an otherwise familiar-looking squad of 17 for the continental event.
Sayed Sherzad, Munir Ahmad and Wafadar are the three players in the squad to have never played ODI cricket before. Of them, Wafadar and Sherzad have played Test cricket and T20 International cricket, respectively, but Ahmad is yet to represent Afghanistan.
Wafadar, the 18-year-old fast bowler who impressed in Afghanistan’s maiden Test match earlier this year against India, and Sherzad, a 23-year-old left-arm pacer who has played three T20 Internationals, have been called up to bolster the pace attack.
Afghanistan’s strength will, expectedly, remain their spinners. Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb-ur-Rahman are all in the squad.
Ahmad, 22, has a good batting average across formats in domestic cricket, 49.86 in first-class matches and 48.42 in List ‘A’ games and he also doubles up as a back-up wicket-keeper for Mohammad Shahzad if needed.
Dawlat Zadran is the only omission from the side that won the ODI series in Ireland recently. Zadran did not feature in the playing XI in any of the three ODIs on the tour, where Afghanistan won the ODIs 2-1 to go with their 2-0 win in the T20 Internationals.
Afghanistan begins their Asia Cup campaign with a match against Sri Lanka on Sept 17.
Squad: Asghar Afghan (captain), Mohammad Shahzad (wicket-keeper), Ihsanullah Janat, Javed Ahmadi, Rahmat Shah, Hashmat Shahidi, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Najibullah Zadran, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, Aftab Alam, Samiullah Shinwari, Munir Ahmad Kakar (wicket-keeper), Sayed Ahmad Sherzad, Sharafudin Ashraf, Wafadar.

England will play three Test matches, five ODIs and three IT20s against West Indies next year after confirmation of the Caribbean tour schedule.
The Test squad will arrive in Barbados on Friday 11 January and will play three Tests in Barbados, Antigua and St Lucia, with the first Test starting at Kensington Oval on 23 January.
The Test series will be followed by five ODIs commencing in Barbados on Wednesday 20 February.
Eoin Morgan’s side will visit Grenada and St Lucia during the series and will conclude the tour with three IT20s in St Lucia and St Kitts, starting on Tuesday 5 March at the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium.

England's schedule for the 2019 tour of the Caribbean
Friday January 11 – England arrive, Barbados
Tests
Tuesday 15 January - Friday 18 January: Tour match – The Three Ws Oval, Barbados
Wednesday 23 January - Sunday 27 January: 1st Test – Kensington Oval, Barbados
Thursday 31 January - Monday 4 February: 2nd Test – Sir Vivian Richard Stadium, Antigua
Saturday 9 February - Wednesday 13 February: 3rd Test – Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, St Lucia
ODIs
Sun 17 Feb: 50-over Tour match – The Three Ws Oval, Barbados
Wednesday 20 February: 1st ODI – Kensington Oval, Barbados
Friday 22 February: 2nd ODI – Kensington Oval, Barbados
Monday 25 Feb: 3rd ODI – National Cricket Stadium, Grenada
Wed 27 Feb: 4th ODI – National Cricket Stadium, Grenada
Saturday 2 March: 5th ODI – Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, St Lucia
IT20s
Tuesday 5 March: 1st IT20 – Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, St Lucia
Friday 8 March: 2nd IT20 – Warner Park, St Kitts
Sunday 10 March: 3rd IT20 – Warner Park, St Kitts

BASSETERRE, St Kitts – Rain, coupled by dashing knocks from Rassie van der Dussen and captain Chris Gayle, powered St Kitts and Nevis to a seven-wicket victory over Jamaica Tallawahs here Sunday night, and into the playoffs of the Caribbean Premier League.
Despite being ahead on run rate, Patriots were facing a tall order of overhauling 207 when the rains intervened in the seventh over at Warner Park, with the score on 65 for one. When the match resumed, the hosts were handed a revised target of 118 from a further 27 balls and van der Dussen (45 not out), Gayle (41) and then Mahmudullah, with an unbeaten 28 from 11 balls, easily put them over the line with five balls remaining.
The victory put Patriots on nine points, securing the last playoff spot and joining reigning champions Trinbago Knight Riders, Guyana Amazon Warriors and Tallawahs in the final four.
Patriots’ success meant that Barbados Tridents, who failed to win any of their home matches which wrapped up on Sunday in Bridgetown, missed out on the playoffs for the third year running along with St Lucia Stars. Earlier, West Indies star Rovman Powell extended his run of good form with a top score of 84 – his second half-century in three outings – as Tallawahs rallied to an imposing 206 for six off their 20 overs.
Opener Glenn Phillips chipped in with 40 while South African David Miller struck 32 as the visitors gathered 66 runs from the final 30 deliveries of the innings.
Sent in, Tallawahs were 42 for two in the seventh over before Powell anchored two stands to get them up to their final score. First, he put on 39 for the third wicket with Phillips who faced 29 balls and struck six fours and a six, before adding a further 79 for the fourth wicket with Miller, who counted two fours and a six in a 20-ball knock.
All told, Powell faced 40 balls and belted 11 fours and four sixes before he was bowled in the penultimate over by seamer Ben Cutting (2-29).
In reply, Patriots lost opener Evin Lewis cheaply for a first-ball ‘duck, bowled off the inside edge by speedster Oshane Thomas in the second over.
However, South African van der Dussen and Gayle combined in a 53-run second wicket stand off 35 balls, which put Patriots on course for their target.
Van der Dussen struck four fours and two sixes off 24 balls while the left-handed Gayle also faced 24 balls and crunched six fours and a couple of sixes.
Unbeaten on 35 at the rain break, Gayle smashed his second six on resumption before holing out to deep point off fellow Jamaican, left-arm seamer Krishmar Santokie. Leg-spinner Adam Zampa then bowled a terrific next over which cost just four runs, leaving Patriots on 75 for three in the eighth and facing a required run rate of nearly 14-1/2.
Bangladeshi Mahmudullah arrived to transform the innings, however, bludgeoning two sixes and two fours in the ninth over from Thomas which gushed 27 runs, and left no doubt over the result.

Pakistan last week Tuesday announced the itinerary for their upcoming series against Australia and New Zealand to be played in the United Arab Emirates over the next three months.
Pakistan start the season with this month's Asia Cup in the UAE from September 15. They will then host Australia for two Tests and three Twenty20 internationals in the emirates from October 7-28.
This will be Australia's first Test series since the infamous ball-tampering row during the Cape Town match against South Africa in March.
That scandal ended in a one-year ban from international cricket for the then-captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner. Opener Cameron Bancroft received a nine-month ban.
Following the Australia series, Pakistan will host New Zealand in the UAE for three T20 internationals, three one-day internationals and three Tests from October 31 to December 7.

Itinerary: Pakistan vs Australia
September 29-October 2: Australia vs Pakistan 'A' in Dubai
October 7-11: First Test in Dubai
October 16-20: Second Test in Abu Dhabi
October 24: First Twenty20 international in Abu Dhabi
October 26: Second Twenty20 international in Dubai
October 28: Third Twenty20 international in Dubai

Pakistan vs New Zealand
October 31: First Twenty20 international in Abu Dhabi
November 2: Second Twenty20 international in Dubai
November 4: Third Twenty20 international in Dubai
November 7: First One-day international in Abu Dhabi
November 9: Second One-day international in Dubai
November 11: Third One-day international in Dubai
November 16-20: First Test in Abu Dhabi
November 24-28 Second Test in Dubai
December 3-7: Third Test in Abu Dhabi

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