FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (CMC) – Barbadian Javon Searles held his nerve to smash a boundary off the final ball of the match as Trinbago Knight Riders pulled off a sensational four-wicket victory over Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Premier League in Florida on Sunday night.
Half-centuries from Colin Munro (67) and Darren Bravo (50) had put the reigning champions on course to overhaul their target of 183 at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium but they still started the final over requiring seven runs for victory.
Fast bowler Oshane Thomas kept Searles scoreless from the first ball and a bungled paddle sweep off the next ball resulted in a leg bye, which got captain Dwayne Bravo (36) on strike.
However, Thomas then struck what seemed the crucial blow when he had Dwayne Bravo caught on the ropes at deep point by Kennar Lewis off the third delivery.
Searles missed the fourth ball and Thomas then bowled a wide to reduce the target to five runs from the last two balls. When Searles and Denesh Ramdin scampered two to long off, it left TKR requiring three runs from the final ball.
Thomas then chose the wrong time to bowl his worst delivery of the over and Searles crashed the wide length ball through cover point to break the Tallawahs hearts.
The defeat for the home side was their second on the trot at the venue and it saw them slip to third in the standings on six points, behind the top placed Guyana Amazon Warriors and the second placed TKR only on net run rate.
Earlier, opener Glenn Phillips struck 80 from 55 balls while David Miller hit an unbeaten 72 from 34 balls as Tallawahs tallied 182 for five off their 20 overs.