Trinbago Knight Riders 155 (Harris 38, Yastika 35, Joseph 3-27, Bates 2-25, Matthews 2-26) beat Barbados Tridents 134 (Navgire 28, Pandey 3-17, Ramnath 2-16, Dottin 2-24) by 21 runs
Laura Harris and Yastika Bhatia put on a 67-run opening stand in 5.4 overs, before Shikha Pandey led a strong bowling performance to give Trinbago Knight Riders an opening-night win at the Women's Caribbean Premier League over Barbados Tridents, the defending champions.
Tridents captain Hayley Matthews opted to bowl first in Bridgetown, where all the matches will be played, and asked Deandra Dottin's Knight Riders to bat first, and Harris and Yastika gave them the perfect start. Harris was the quicker scorer, hitting 38 in 19 balls in the stand, while Yastika contributed 24 in 16.
Dottin wasn't at her big-hitting best, but did her bit in a run-a-ball 26-run stand with Yastika, but wickets fell in a rush after that. Qiana Joseph got her first when she had Yastika stumped, and from 93 for 1 in the 10th over, Knight Riders were suddenly 133 for 6 in the 18th. It was only Madeline Penna's 21-ball 27 from No. 5 that kept Knight Riders going as the innings folded on the last ball of the 20th over.
Joseph picked up 3 for 27 with her left-arm spin, while Suzie Bates and Matthews picked up two wickets each for Tridents.
The Tridents reply began strongly. After a 40-run stand for the first wicket between Matthews and Joseph, Maddy Green and Kiran Navgire added 39 for the third wicket, and Navgire then added 22 more with Naijanni Cumberbatch. It wasn't frenetic, but when Tridents lost their fourth wicket, that of Cumberbatch, they were well placed at 107 in the 13th over.
But the innings went into freefall after that. Once Navgire and Green fell, there was almost no direction to the Tridents innings. Pandey, who had earlier removed Matthews, got the wicket of Cumberbatch, and later finished the innings, in 18.4 overs, with the wicket of Afy Fletcher.
She finished with 3 for 17 and the Player-of-the-Match award, while Dottin and Samara Ramnath got two wickets each.
