Kings make it four straight wins, Knight Riders' slide continues

Saint Lucia Kings claimed their fourth consecutive victory of the season, moving to the top of the Caribbean Premier League table with a commanding 36-run win over Trinbago Knight Riders at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad. The victory was built on Tim Seifert's second CPL hundred and a decisive three-wicket over from skipper Roston Chase, even as Kieron Pollard threatened to pull off a staggering heist for the chasing side.

Seifert and Kamil Pooran gave the Kings a rapid launch pad with a 60-run opening stand, the New Zealander racing to a quick half-century. Pooran and John Campbell chipped in with valuable cameoes before Sunil Narine removed the latter for his 650th T20 scalp, at which point Seifert was unbeaten on 82 off 38 balls and the Kings were well placed at 135/2 after 12 overs.

Narine and Tariq then stunted the Kings' momentum as just 21 runs came across the next four overs. Charith Asalanka broke free with a hat-trick of sixes off Drakes, but the slower balls proved difficult to put away even for the in-form Seifert. Pollard conceded just 15 runs across the 18th and 20th overs, yet Seifert still brought up his second CPL hundred as the Kings posted 211, the highest team total of the season.

Pollard's blitz steals the spotlight

The defeat was hard to digest for the Knight Riders, but the game belonged individually to Kieron Pollard, who turned back the clock with a sensational 26-ball 65. The former West Indies all-rounder reclaimed the top spot in the all-time T20 run-charts, moving past England's Jos Buttler to become the highest run-''tter in the format's history.

Pollard needed 35 runs at the start of play to surpass Buttler's tally of 14,890 T20 runs. He had earlier overtaken Chris Gayle to become the format's leading run-getter this year, only for Buttler to leapfrog him in August while playing for Manchester Super Giants in The Hundred. Now, with 14,921 runs from 666 innings across 749 matches, Pollard has reclaim the summit and could become the first player to reach 15,000 runs when TKR face Barbados Tridents on Friday.

The knock, which arrived at a strike rate of 250 and included six fours and five sixes while chasing a target of 212, also took Pollard's career tally of sixes to 1,010 in T20s. He is now just 47 sixes away from matching Chris Gayle's record for the most sixes in the format, with the pair the only players ever to hit more than 1,000 in T20 cricket. Andre Russell sits third on that list with 808.

Chase's triple-strike derails the chase

Before Pollard's fireworks, TKR had got off to a flyer with a 70-run opening partnership, Colin Munro proving the chief aggressor alongside Sunil Narine. It took skipper Roston Chase just four deliveries to flip the game on its head, however: immediately after being hit for a one-handed six, the offspinner removed Navaratne and followed up with the wickets of Matthew Breetzke and Nicholas Pooran.

Joshua Bishop bowled a nagging spell through the middle overs, and once Munro fell in the 11th over it looked all but over for the at-Knight Riders. Yet Pollard had other ideas, tearing into Bishop in a 21-run over. While a struggling Matthew Tromp crawled to 7 off 19 at one stage, Pollard raced past half a century, hammering Maheesh Theekshana for another 21-run over and bringing the equation down to a very gettable 66 off the final 24 balls.

Matthew Forde landed the decisive blow, removing Pollard with a short delivery and shutting the door on the Knight Riders. Neither Tromp nor Jyd Goolie could get any real momentum, and no double-digit overs came in the final four as the Kings sealed their win and climbed to the top of the standings, leaving TKR to absorb a third consecutive defeat.

Brief Scores: Saint Lucia Kings 211/4 in 20 overs (Tim Seifert 103*, Charith Asalanga 33; Kieron Prewhite 1-24, Sunil Narine 1-27) beat Trinbago Knight Riders 175/6 in 20 overs (Kieron Pollard 65, Colin Munro 48; Roston Chase 3-24, Jospeh Bishop 1-25) by 36 runs.