Twitter Reactions: Luke Ronchi assists the Warriors reach the points table summit

The 21st match of the CPL between St Kitts and Nevis Patriots and St Lucia Stars which was to be played on 31 August 2018 was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to wet outfield. With this match yielding no result, the Stars are now almost out of the tournament. The action in the league resumed on Saturday with the game between Barbados Tridents and Guyana Amazon Warriors.

The Warriors won this match by 8 wickets to reach to the top of the points table. Luke Ronchi was the star with the bat and was also adjudged the ‘Man of the Match’. With yet another loss here, the Tridents continue to slump at the bottom of the points table. With wet conditions around, winning the toss played was crucial in this encounter.

Batting in the wet and skiddy conditions didn’t favour the Tridents

Warriors’ new skipper, Rayad Emrit had no hesitations to bowl first after winning the toss. The conditions definitely assisted the team bowling first and hence the Tridents ended up putting a below-par total on the board. Changing the batting order so often also doesn’t seem to be working in their favour. They walked out with a different opening pair in this match. It was Dwayne Smith who walked out into the middle with Martin Guptill.

The Warriors’ bowlers sent both Guptill and Hashim Amla back for 8 and 2 runs respectively. Smith, after getting to a good start threw his wicket away. He scored 28 off 16 balls. Steve Smith, Shai Hope and Nicolas Pooran with 40, 34, and 46 runs respectively helped revive the innings. But, none of them could carry on to get the team into a formidable position as they ended up with 165 runs in 20 overs after losing 7 wickets.

Luke Ronchi’s composed innings wins it for the Warriors

The pitch got better as the match progressed and it was much easier to bat on in the second innings. The openers, Chadwick Walton and Luke Ronchi put on 96 runs for the opening wicket in just 9.1 overs. Having got to such a good start, there was no chance that the Warriors could lose the game. While Walton got out for 43 runs, Ronchi remained unbeaten on 67 off 40 balls.

Ronchi just took 26 balls to reach his half-century but slowed down later as the victory seemed to be in sight. Shai Hope, with 30 off 20 balls played a good inning. Cameron Delport finished it off at the end with 14 off 6 balls as the Warriors got to the target in just 16.4 overs.

Twitterati was pumped to see Luke Ronchi bat the way he did. Also, many were happy to see Steve Smith get back amongst the runs although a few felt that he took some time to score his runs.

Here is how Twitter reacted: