CPL 2020: Evin Lewis 89 leads St Kitts and Nevis Patriots to first win

Evin Lewis hit CPL 2020's highest individual score and then Ben Dunk struck a crucial 11-ball 22 to seal St Kitts and Nevis Patriots' first win of the season, ending a three-game losing streak, by defeating Barbados Tridents by six wickets in a battle between the two sides stranded at the bottom of the points table.

It was a tricky chase despite Patriots having plenty of wickets entering the death overs, and that was because of the sluggish batting from Denesh Ramdin, who made a 32-ball 20. But that eventually did not hurt the Patriots as Lewis struck 89 in 60 deliveries to ensure Patriots stayed in touching distance of the required run-rate and then Dunk's cameo took them over the line.

Opting to bowl, Rayad Emrit's rotation of his bowlers didn't allow the Tridents batsmen to settle early on. Sohail Tanvir's cutters and Alzarri Joseph's accurate line stopped openers Johnson Charles and Shai Hope to get on top of the bowlers, and then Emrit's slower balls stifled the Tridents, with their scoring ate of 6.50 in the Powerplay.

Despite a ten-run seventh over that looked to break the shackles, Charles fell in the eighth for a run-a-ball 24 as he tried to slog offspinner Jon-Russ Jaggesar's carrom ball. Hope struggled with his timing too, and Jaggesar added to his wicket tally on the last ball of the tenth over when his sweep found deep midwicket, out for a 30-ball 29.

No. 3 Kyle Mayers looked to attack thereafter, but fell for 22 in the 13th over - caught behind off Tanvir - and then Tridents fell into a deeper hole when No. 4 Corey Anderson's straight drive three balls later caught Tanvir's fingertips and crashed into the non-striker's stumps with Jason Holder outside his crease. At the end of 13 overs, Tridents were 81 for 4 and struggling.

With a deep batting line-up, Tridents had to up their scoring rate and they did when Anderson and No. 6 Ashley Nurse got together. At first, it was Anderson who began attacking, unafraid to take legspiner Imran Khan on, but when Tanvir returned for his second spell, neither batsman spared him as the 17th over went for 21, and Tridents sneaked past 120.

The 18th over from Joseph looked promising for the Tridents again as Nurse crunched a six over long off to start the over, but he fell two balls later, ending a 29-ball stand that earned the Tridents 56 runs. Anderson was out for 31 next over, but they did enough to ensure Tridents set Patriots 152 to win.

With Chris Lynn failing in his fourth straight game - trapped lbw by Rashid Khan - the responsibility of ensuring Patriots don't lose their fourth-straight game fell on Lewis.

Finding his team on 41 for 2, he combined with No. 4 Ramdin to anchor the innings through the middle overs. With Ramdin struggling to rotate the strike, Lewis took the onus of hitting the boundaries, including a hat-trick of sixes off Hayden Walsh Jr in the ninth over to reach his first fifty of CPL 2020.

Despite a few tidy overs from Rashid and debutant Nyeem Young after the tenth over, Lewis' aggression could not be controlled, shellacking enough boundaries to bring the equation down to 36 off 24, then 31 off 18 and then 22 off 12, but he eventually ran out of gas in the 19th over, out for a 60-ball 89 trying to clear Kyle Mayers over long off.

With the equation now reading 20 off nine balls, and two new batsmen in the middle, it looked like Tridents were going to make the league double over Patriots. But then Ben Dunk came to the party, first flicking a full and wide ball over short third man to close the 19th over out and then hit two sixes off the inexperienced Young in the 20th to seal a six-wicket win, much to the relief of Ramdin, who was struggling to get going in the middle.