TKR make winning start after Munro's blazing ton

Trinbago Knight Riders kickstarted their CPL 2025 campaign with a blazing win after Colin Munro hammered the first century of the season. Munro's terrific 57-ball 120 ensured TKR finished with a massive 231/5 on the board. Even though St Kitts and Nevis Patriots did put up a fight, they were always behind the chase and fell short by 12 runs.

After flicking Naseem Shah for a six very early in his innings, Munro got going with a hat-trick of boundaries against Dominic Drakes. For his part, Alex Hales did some early damage as well but it was truly the Munro show as he rounded it off the PowerPlay with a six and three boundaries to bring up a stunning 21-ball fifty that saw the Knight Riders post 77 in the first six overs. Hales then welcomed Waqar Salamkheil into the attack with two sixes in an over to bring up the century stand inside eight overs. With every bowler getting hammered, St Kitts didn't really have options and continued to bowl Salamkheil but the move paid off as he got his man this time to finally break the partnership.

The second half of the innings completely belonged to Munro. The veteran opener took charge after Hales's dismissal and kept finding the boundary. Nicholas Pooran didn't make much of an impact but Kieron Pollard began in style after the skipper's departure. Munro then smashed one down the ground against the returning Naseem to reach three figures off just 50 deliveries. He didn't take things lightly even after that as he hit the very next ball for another six. It was only in the penultimate over, Munro was dismissed finally for 120 but by then, the damage had been done.

St Kitts for their part, did begin well in the PowerPlay to go toe to toe with their opponents. While they found it hard to score against Akeal Hosein, runs came at the other end with Mohammad Amir bearing the brunt alongside Sunil Narine to an extent. Amir conceded 24 in an over as St Kitts finished with 65/0 in the PowerPlay. However, both set batters were then dismissed in successive overs with Hosein picking up a wicket in his final over. He finished with figures of 1/25 and those were excellent in the context of the game. At the halfway point, St Kitts needed 137 from the remaining 10 overs.

Rilee Rossouw hammered back-to-back sixes to try and keep his side in the hunt but that was immediately followed by two quiet overs by the spinners that pushed the required rate up further. With both Rossouw and Holder up for a fight, the equation came down to 80 off 30 balls. However, three wickets in the space of seven deliveries completely rattled the chasing side and from thereon the match headed only one way. The game was done and dusted after an excellent 19th over from Amir that brought the equation down to 43 off 6. An erratic final over from Terrance Hinds and centurion Munro combined allowed St Kitts to bring the losing margin down to 12 runs.

Brief scores: Trinbago Knight Riders 231/5 in 20 overs (Colin Munro 120, Alex Hales 47; Jason Holder 2/40) beat St Kitts and Nevis Patriots 219/7 in 20 overs (Jason Holder 44, Andre Fletcher 41; Usman Tariq 4/33) by 12 runs