Trinbago Knight Riders 152 for 7 (Pollard 47, Neesham 33, Cottrell 3-13, Emrit 3-39) beat St Kitts & Nevis Patriots 153 (Lewis 36, Neesham 3-18, Hasnain 3-36) by 11 runs

No Bravo brothers. No Colin Munro. No Ali Khan. No problem for defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders. New Zealand allrounder James Neesham, teenaged Pakistan tearaway Mohammad Hasnain and new captain Kieron Pollard all sparkled on their TKR debuts to overcome dew and St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in the CPL 2019 opener at the Queen’s Park Oval.

Pollard isn’t too far away from playing his 500th T20, but he had never turned out for his home franchise in Trinidad before Thursday. He made it a memorable occasion, smashing a boundary-laden 47 off 32 balls, to haul TKR past 150.

Patriots went through the Powerplay unscathed, but they lost 4 for 6 in a collapse that was set in motion by spin on a dew-slicked pitch. Fabien Allen and Usama Mir created some late excitement with a barrage of sixes, but Neesham and Hasnain closed the game out for the hosts.

Full report to follow