Kingston and Basseterre hosted the second week's matches of CPL 2019. New highs were reached and the competition's traditional superpowers extended their dominance. Here's a recap of the week gone by.
Record for highest CPL total - broken, and broken again, in 72 hours
Entering the week, 226 - made by St Lucia Stars last season - was the CPL record for the highest team total. It was smashed twice by the end of the week's first match.
Chris Gayle's 22nd T20 hundred, in a 162-run stand with Chadwick Walton - a CPL record - lifted Jamaica Tallawahs to 241 on Tuesday, but St Kitts and Nevis Patriots rode on Evin Lewis' 17-ball fifty - another CPL record - to chase it down with seven balls to spare. Devon Thomas contributed to Patriots win with 71 and the 37 sixes struck by the two sides were the joint-most in a T20 game.
Three days later, Trinbago Knight Riders hammered 267 against Tallawahs, batting first, snatching the CPL record on the way to posting the highest total in the history of franchise cricket. Colin Munro struck 96 in 50 balls and Lendl Simmons made 86 as Knight Riders smashed 171 runs in the final ten overs. In response, Tallawahs made a valiant 226 for 5, but suffered their fourth straight loss of the season.
There were other concerns for Tallawahs this week. Andre Russell played no part against St Lucia Zouks after retiring hurt following a blow to his helmet, and was forced to miss Tallawahs' next game too. A win later in the week earned Tallawahs their first points, but they remain last on the points table. Knight Riders are unbeaten after four games, tied at the top with Guyana Amazon Warriors.
Mixed results for Patriots
With four of the seven games being played in Basseterre, Patriots had the opportunity to consolidate their position in week two, but they lost half their matches.
Patriots failed to ride on the momentum of chasing down 241 on Tuesday, losing to Barbados Tridents by 18 runs on Wednesday.
They were then bowled out for 121 against the unbeaten Amazon Warriors, taking a big dent to their NRR as their opponents chased their target down with 25 balls to spare. But Patriots made up for that in the week's last game by downing Zouks with 31 balls to spare, courtesy another Lewis half-century. Patriots discovered fast bowler Akeem Jordan, whose four-wicket haul on CPL debut restricted Zouks to only 138.
Bowler of the week
Zouks' Fawad Ahmed, CPL 2018's highest wicket-taker, conceded 2.75 runs per over in a match where Patriots scored at nearly ten. Although it came in a losing cause, Fawad's 2 for 11 was the Zouks highlight in an innings where the rest of their bowlers were ducking for cover. A legbreak that brought Laurie Evans forward before spinning across him and flattening his off-stump was a sight for sore eyes. Fawad played a crucial role in Zouks' first win of the season too, his 2 for 28 helping restrict Tallawahs to 170 on a flat deck.
Batsman of the week
Gayle's 116 was a close contender, but Munro's 96 in Knight Riders' record-smashing 267 could not be ignored. Playing his first game of the season after joining the side from international duty, Munro - CPL 2018's highest run-scorer - picked up from where he left off last season, cracking eight sixes and six fours to finish four short of a fifth T20 ton.
Tallawahs' left-arm wristspinner Zahir Khan was troubling Knight Riders when Munro walked in, but he started the innings with a cut through point before reverse-sweeping the bowler for six. To negate Zahir's googly, and take lbw out of the equation, Munro took guard beyond off stump. Against the pacers, Munro was in his element, muscling slogs through midwicket or aiming sixes over the bowler's head. From 22 off 19 balls at the end of ten overs, he drilled 74 runs off his next 31 deliveries to help Knight Riders post the third-highest T20 total of all time.