The Jamaica Kingsmen beat the Barbados Tridents by nine wickets in the Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League Eliminator at Kensington Oval on September 17, 2026, and Maaz Sadaqat made sure the result never felt in doubt. He struck 112 at the top of the order, carried the chase, and became the youngest centurion in CPL history at 21 years old.
That is why this match matters now. In a knockout game, the winner keeps moving and the loser goes home, and the Kingsmen moved on to Qualifier 2 with 35 balls remaining. They did it with Kirk McKenzie unbeaten on 22, after building to 79/0 by the end of the PowerPlay and then finishing the job without drama.
The performance that set the tone belonged to Sadaqat. His 112 was his first T20 century, and he reached it in exactly double the number of balls it had taken him to get to fifty, a sign of how quickly he shifted from caution to control once the chase was under way. For a side that needed one clean answer in a knockout match, he provided it early and kept providing it until the target was gone.
The Barbados Tridents, though, did not fold immediately. They were 2/2 after three overs and later 24/4, yet still dragged themselves to 144/6 through Quinton de Kock's 71 and Chris Green's unbeaten 57. That recovery gave the innings a shape it briefly did not look capable of having, but it still left a total that the Kingsmen attacked from the first over and overpowered well before the end.
That gap between the Tridents' recovery and the final margin tells the story of the evening. They found enough resistance to post a respectable score, but not enough to survive a chase led by a batter making history. The Kingsmen now move one match closer to Sunday's final, while the Tridents are out after a defeat that turned on one innings and one chase that never slipped.
The Kingsmen will face the loser of the Amazon Warriors and the Falcons for a place in Sunday’s final, with the winner taking the last step into the title match.
