Barbados Tridents V Kings XI Punjab, CLT20: Highlights, Scorecard and Report

Kings XI Punjab (178/6) needed a late flurry to get past Barbados Tridents (174/6) in Saturday's final Twenty20 Champions League match, beating the West Indies squad by four wickets.

David Miller and Akshar Patel bridged the required gap in the final four overs with a series of boundaries, with the South African scoring the decisive six with just two balls remaining.

Tridents were sent out to bat first. Bleacher Report's Freddie Wilde really wanted the West Indies side to do well, considering the club arguably was hit most by a player exodus to the IPL teams:

Dilshan Munaweera opened for Barbados, and the Sri Lankan didn't disappoint with 50 runs from 27 balls. Punjab's bowling looked shaky against Hobart Hurricanes, and as expected, Tridents went after them early and often.

BATSMEN		RUNS	BALLS	SR	4S	6S
BOWLER	O	R	W	ECON	DOTS
Dilshan Munaweera	c Manan Vohra b Parvinder Awana	50	26	192.30	5	3
William Perkins	lbw Parvinder Awana	10	8	125.00	2	0
Raymon Reifer	NOT OUT	60	42	142.85	3	4
Jonathan Carter	c David Miller b Anureet Singh	20	19	105.26	3	0
James Franklin	c Parvinder Awana b Thisara Perera	10	8	125.00	1	0
Elton Chigumbura	c Anureet Singh b Thisara Perera	3	5	60.00	0	0
Jason Holder	c David Miller b Parvinder Awana	12	9	133.33	0	1
Ashley Nurse	NOT OUT	8	3	266.66	0	1
EXTRAS	(lb 1)	1
TOTAL	(6 wickets; 20 overs)	174
Anureet Singh	4	32	1	8.00	9
Parvinder Awana	4	46	3	11.50	9
Akshar Patel	4	42	0	10.50	4
Glenn Maxwell	3	22	0	7.33	8
Virender Sehwag	1	10	0	10.00	1
Karanveer Singh	1	6	0	6.00	2
Thisara Perera	3	15	2	5.00	9

BBC Sport's Azzam Ameen was impressed:

Raymon Reifer did even better than Munaweera after coming on for William Perkins, scoring 60 runs from 42 balls not out, including four sixes. The batter-friendly pitch in Mohali certainly lived up to its reputation, and Jonathan Carter contributed 20 runs from 19 balls before getting caught by Miller, via the event's Twitter feed:

Cricketer Aakash Chopra believed Punjab's many changes to their bowling was indicative of their struggles:

Anureet Singh led the way with 32 runs surrendered in four overs, but Parvinder Awana and Patel struggled tremendously, each conceding more than 40 runs in four overs each.

Barbados' Twitter feed appeared very satisfied with the target of 174:

Kings XI got solid production from star opener Virender Sehwag (31 runs from 25 balls) and Manan Vohra (27 from 19), but failed to continue the pace in the middle overs. Wriddhiman Saha managed just 14 runs from 13 balls, and after an explosive start, Glenn Maxwell was dismissed with 16 from eight.

BATSMEN		RUNS	BALLS	SR	4S	6S
BOWLER	O	R	W	ECON	DOTS
Virender Sehwag	lbw Jeevan Mendis	31	25	124.00	3	1
Manan Vohra	c Jonathan Carter b Ravi Rampaul	27	19	142.10	3	1
Wriddhiman Saha	c Dilshan Munaweera b James Franklin	14	13	107.69	1	0
Glenn Maxwell	c Ashley Nurse b Ravi Rampaul	16	8	200.00	3	0
David Miller	NOT OUT	46	34	135.29	3	2
George Bailey	c James Franklin b Jeevan Mendis	7	11	63.63	0	0
Thisara Perera	c Jonathan Carter b Ashley Nurse	0	1	0.00	0	0
Akshar Patel	NOT OUT	23	9	255.55	3	1
EXTRAS	(nb 2, w 6, b 4, lb 2)	14
TOTAL	(6 wickets; 19.4 overs)	178	TOTAL	(6 wickets; 19.4 overs)	178	TOTAL
Jason Holder	3.4	38	0	10.36	6
Ravi Rampaul	4	50	2	12.50	5
Rayad Emrit	2	17	0	8.50	3
James Franklin	2	17	1	8.50	5
Jeevan Mendis	4	18	2	4.50	12
Ashley Nurse	4	32	1	8.00	8

Without the powerful Maxwell to close the gap, Punjab suddenly found themselves well behind the required run rate. George Bailey and Thisara Perera couldn't turn the tide, as Peter Miller started to prepare himself for the shock of the day:

Miller tried taking the team on his back, and in Patel, he found a partner who could at least help Kings XI make some sort of attempt on the target. Back-to-back boundaries from the latter closed the gap to 10 runs, with seven balls remaining.

Jason Holder was given the responsibility to bowl last, defending a five-run lead, and Miller found the boundary with room to spare with three deliveries left in the match.

Barbados gave it everything they had and came very close to an upset, but Ravi Rampaul (four overs, 50 runs, two wickets) simply couldn't keep up with Punjab's batsmen, a group that has more depth than arguably any other in the world.

Rayad Emrit told ESPN Cricinfo he really thought his team would steal it, saying: "I thought with two overs to go, we should have had it with 26 runs to defend. Ravi is our most experienced bowler. Another day he will get it right, but it didn't happen today. We had spoken among the kinds of lengths we needed to bowl."

Sehwag praised Patel, who is normally more known for his bowling than his batting.

"No one expected Patel to bat the way he did," Sehwag said. "The six he hit off Rampaul was amazing. It's a good track to bat on. A little bit slow. A couple of balls spun when Mendis bowled, but overall it was a good T20 wicket."

Kings XI will take sole possession of the top spot in Group B and look like a safe bet to make it to the play-offs, while Tridents can look back on this match with their heads held high but with slim chances of surviving the group stages.

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