'Absolutely ridiculous' - Kieron Pollard reacts as Trinbago Knight Riders become first team to receive red card in CPL 2023

St Kitts and Nevis Patriots (SKN) and Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) collided in Match 12 of the ongoing Caribbean Premier League in Basseterre, St Kitts. Kieron Pollard won the toss and invited SKN to bat. Andre Fletcher got his team off to a flying start before Sherfane Rutherford played a brilliant knock of 62 off 38 balls to help SKN set a challenging target of 179.

However, something unique happened ahead of the final over of their innings. The umpire called Pollard and dished out a red card. This was the first appearance of the red card in this year's league. As a penalty for maintaining a slow over-rate, TKR were forced to have only 10 players on the field for the last over. Out of them, only two were allowed to stay outside the 30-yard circle. Pollard asked Sunil Narine, who had finished his quota of four overs with figures of 3/24, to leave the field as Dwayne Bravo conceded 18 off the final over.

After the match, Pollard said that the rule was "absolutely ridiculous", noting that the penalty is too severe for being only 30-45 seconds behind the permissible over-rate.

"To be honest, it will take away the hard work everyone has done. We are like the pawns and we are going to do what we are told. We are going to play as fast as we can. If you are penalised for 30-45 seconds in a tournament like this, it is absolutely ridiculous," Pollard said on the broadcast as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard power TKR to first win of CPL 2023

The openers Chadwick Walton and Martin Guptill couldn't fire for TKR yet again. However, Nicholas Pooran, who has been in scintillating form as of late, played a blistering knock of 61 off 32 balls to set the platform for his team.

Lorcan Tucker played the anchor's role as he scored a 31-ball 36. In the end, the duo of Pollard (37* off 16) and Andre Russell (23* off 8) stitched a 32-run partnership in just 12 balls to take TKR to victory with six wickets and 17 balls to spare.