Trinibago Knight Riders all-rounder Andre Russell expressed his fury on the lighting issues that occurred during the Eliminator match of the 2024 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) against the Barbados Royals, stating that he felt robbed and that the entire situation was a “F****ry”.
The 2024 CPL Eliminator was engulfed in controversy due to a significant floodlight failure at Providence Stadium in Guyana, which caused a two-hour delay in the match. As a result, the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method was implemented to establish a revised target.
Russell’s team, the Trinbago Knight Riders, had an impressive performance with the bat, scoring 168 runs for 3 wickets in 19.1 overs before the floodlight failure occurred. Captain Nicholas Pooran was in sensational form, hitting 91 runs off 60 balls. Russell also appeared dangerous at the crease, contributing 20 runs from 18 balls.
After the two-hour delay which saw the DLS method being implemented, the Barbados Royals were set a target of 60 runs in five overs. Despite losing Quinton de Kock early in the innings, David Miller delivered a remarkable performance, scoring 50 runs off just 17 balls, leading his team to victory and securing a spot in Qualifier 2 with four balls to spare.
What surprised many was that the cut-off time for the five-over match was 10:52 PM local time, yet it was announced that play would restart at 11:01 PM local time.
If the game had been called off, the Trinbago Knight Riders would have been declared the winners and advanced to Qualifier 2 as they had finished higher than the Barbados Royals in the league standings.
