 Yeah, wave your hand indeed if you're enjoying CPL 2023 brought to us by Republic Bank and it was back canal in Port of Spain on Wednesday night as the Trinbega nightriders bounced back from a loss a day earlier to secure victory over the Barbados Royals in match 20 of the competition. Nicolas Puran sent fans into a frenzy blasting a 53 ball on beaten 102. The knock included 10-6's and 5-4's at a strike rate of 192.45. Andrzej Brussel added 39 while Martin Guptil contributed 37 as the nightriders went on to post 208 for 6 in their 20 overs. Jason Holder was the pick of the Royals' bowlers with 2 for 39. TKR would not have taken their total for granted knowing the Royals produced a record run chase one match earlier but the current Ponadlet outfit managed to restrict the Royals to 1-6-6 for 7. Karl Meir's top scorer with 70 from 45 deliver spinners Akil Hussain and Bokhar Sanam Keel took two wickets each for the nightriders. An impressive victory for the nightriders' lads. Yeah and always great to see Puran displaying the kind of batting skills we saw last night. I remember a 2014 ICC under 19 innings that he had played against the Australians when I think he gained global recognition Ricardo because it was a knock of the ages. There were many international commentators watching the match who suggested that this under 19 game that they were watching had produced one of the best innings that ever seen in cricket period. That was the 140 yard, the under 19 in the World's Top. They were 32 for 4 when he came in. He pulled them to 208 all out, 143, 144s and 6-6's and the Australians won the match and Nicholas Puran was still the man of the match. The Australians won comfortably by 5 wickets but Puran's innings was so commanding and dominant and attractive that he won the man of the match honour. And I've been saying on this show for years Ricardo that Puran is a genuine superstar ability kind of player. I just want to see him being more consistent and produce the kind of batting that we saw last night because this is a player with immense talent. Yeah surely a player with immense talent and you speak about consistency. We have been seeing some amount of consistency in recent months coming off the USA T20 league where he was fantastic there, came into the West Indies, set up for the series against India and as we now know performed well enough to have earned a nomination for player of the month and here he is with a fabulous century for the TKR last night against the Barbados Royals in a match that TKR would have been desperate to win I think because they would have been coming off the feet in the previous game and Nicholas Puran set it up brilliantly for them which is what you want in situations like this Lance. You in tournaments especially when you're coming off the feet and you're looking to get back on track you need your big players, you need your star players to step up and lead the way and that is what Nicholas Puran did last night. It was a majestic innings and it was definitely worth watching. Yeah and drama as well because there was a close runout incident with his captain Kyron Pollard in the end he was the man that that that retained the strike you know so things could have gone the other way if if he was run out in that place so that added another dimension to the drama of last night's match but the TKR when they are in the mood and especially when they are in their home fans can be a pretty tough team to beat and we're establishing the fact now that Dwayne Bravo who has been a star player for TT franchises although he did you have sojourns at other franchises isn't playing he hasn't played the last two matches for sure and his skills as a death bowler and just general cricket brain and how he thinks the game out and and enthusiastic about getting his team pumped up to deliver match winning results I'm not sure how much he will play later on in the tournament but I'm really happy to see TKR playing the way they did last night. Yeah when you look at this TKR team lands I think you'll notice that you have a number of genuine superstar players some might say superstar players of just a year because you look at the quality of a Martin Guptella, Pollard, Andrea Rosso, Sunil Narain, Nicholas Poran still very much current as someone who is part of the the West Indies setup still but these players are genuine world-class players I think the questions coming into this tournament around the the TKR setup would be whether these players would come great come good for them this campaign and so far things are working out quite well even someone like Andrea Russell who I don't think has had striking results in recent times has come to the party in a big way along the way getting his 400th wicket in T20 cricket but last night with a valuable 39 and we're seeing Russell as well once more bowling being able to bowl full compliments of four overs and showing some fire and pace once again so I think the signs are very good for TKR here and Sunil Narain looks menacing again in in my opinion so I think the signs are very good for this TKR setup I know you pointed to the Ghana Amazon Warriors yesterday and how they are looking lands but I'm starting to like the look of TKR because of the experience but also because the experience in this tournament is also showing that there is some amount of form there yeah and when I spoke about the Ghana Amazon Warriors and being impressed with how they are playing at the moment the obvious retort is that it's nothing new to see the Ghana Amazon Warriors playing well in the group stages and I accept that but there's something Ricardo about how the team is playing this year that that looks different to me and I think they are the team to beat I'll go that far even though I'm an established TKR fan yeah I think there are many across the Caribbean who would hope that you're very much right and that the Ghana Amazon Warriors can get it done as I said when we had the conversation with the captain Imran Tahir I don't think there are many across the region who would be disappointed if the Ghana Amazon Warriors got it done because I think it is very much well accepted that this is the best team not to have won this tournament in fact there are those who might say that teams not as good have won the Caribbean Premier League so hopefully they will be able to deliver but I am starting to like the look of the Trinbega Knight Riders yeah and I just want to go back quickly to the poor and development because remember he did have a car accident that he had damaged legs he suffered leg injuries and that would have stunted his development in his early 20s and it took him a little time to but it's been a while it's been a while that 1920 yeah it's it's been a while but I'm just saying it happened at a time when he was at the stage of rapid development true but can I be honest with you my disappointment with Nicolas Puran has actually been in the last four years since he I think secured almost a permanent spot in the limited over set up in 2019 my disappointment has been what he has produced from 2019 since the 2019 World Cup to okay this year understood yeah I think he should have been better I think he has the ability to be better and yes it's a it's a short period but what he's produced in recent times is a a lot more along the lines of the type of production yeah that I expect from a Nicolas Puran because gosh he's such a delight to watch yeah all right Maria Ramirez she's in sweet TNT for the Republic Bank CPL she's having all the fun by the way and she caught up with one of our analysts here on the Sportsmax the man who delivered a wonderful bit of commentary to accompany the Rakeem Connell center four nights ago we're talking about Nikhil Uttamchandani well hi everyone as you know I'm in Trinidad and Tobago and I'm continuing to bring you all the features behind the scenes action so you've seen Nikhil Uttamchandani on the Sportsmax zoned via zoom well today for the first time I have the opportunity to meet him in our first son Nikhil welcome thank you so much Maria and welcome and hello to the zoned family I'm great to be in person but even though it's been on zoom it's been highly enjoyable yet Nikhil is of course a family of the Sportsmax team so I'm here to chat with you today a bit about you know how you got started just to get to know you versus what you come on the show and usually do yeah I think I'm privileged this year to be working in the TV commentary aspect of the Caribbean Premier League but for me everything would have began about maybe 10 years ago and it was just 13 and someone a guy named by the name of Gary Belling Barbados just set up a camera at my club and I was playing we had two teams and he just had a mic and he was like you like to talk a lot give this a try and then from there I think it just grew slowly and slowly I started to get a lot more opportunities and then never looked back and grateful now that I could be here less than 10 years later yeah you're 21 and you're brilliant at what you do thank you so much I think that's amazing so you know my question to you is what this preparation for the CPL match let's see and to you well for me is a lot because unlike some of the other commentators that I work with who have played the game at the highest level for me it's about bringing a different perspective but also I think having a more statistical background or base because I don't have the experience of at the very top level so I mean coming into a tournament like the CPL I could say I put in at least more than 24 hours of preparation obviously not at one time but and that and that comes out of pure excitement I don't even use half of the stats that I write down but it's just I kind of love the aspect of being able to prepare and learn a lot about players and identify trends and and study certain aspects and patterns within the game of cricket so a lot of research and then within the tournament it's like quick turnaround but it's been a really good opportunity for me just to be able to not only prepare coming in but then adjust the research that I have and learn new things and pick the brains of the commentators that I'm working with that have been in it for 10 and 20 years. One of the narratives coming into this interview was the fact that you paved your old pathway I was told that initially you would you know fund yourself and show that you got around and did the necessary work to of course now be in this position talk to me about that. Yeah well the CPL for me as well I mean it's always been special from a young child I've been going to every single game in Barbados and then when I got older I was awarded the opportunity by the Barbados Tridents in the 2020 and 2021 years to be their social media correspondent to do public relations for them and in that time it gave me an opportunity to meet a lot of influential people meet a lot of players who I have good relationships with but also sometimes sit at the back of the commentary box and learn and then last year in 2022 I had a really good opportunity to do the radio coverage thanks to everyone who was involved in that to give me that push to be able to then not necessarily commentate on TV but still express my views via the radio which is such a well-used platform around the region and that involved you know be flying around to the different parts sometimes you know working out a partnership where I could put up like put up for my own accommodation at times but also have the be compensated for the matches and it just worked out really well because I saw it as a big opportunity not only to work in radio commentary but to be a door across from the TV commentators and then it gave me the opportunity to rub shoulders with Danny Morrison, Alex Jordan, Ian Bishop, Darren Gangan and everyone and just sitting at the back I gained so much knowledge information was able to learn so much and jokingly manifested it per se and it's cool that a year later I still am able to you know see the commentary box of radio but now I'm able to work in the TV space. I know you have some moves you of course played cricket talk to me about that experience and what do you do to your bold, your fat? Well it started as a wicked keeper but everyone always says six foot four and we're keeping that doesn't make too much sense and as I got taller I started to bowl do a little bit of batting wasn't too good but obviously it didn't really work out as planned but the cool thing for me was in the years I spent training practicing playing a lot of cricket in Barbados at the club level at the school level it gave me the understanding to learn a lot about the game but also too I think at one time in my life when it was maybe 16 I started to realize that the cricket was going in one direction and the commentary was going in another and obviously every young child's dream is to play cricket for the West Indies play for their country but I was able to then decipher that commentary can be something of a big opportunity for me and it's sort of why I do it as well I want to inspire children who obviously have that massive dream of playing for the West Indies but if they don't necessarily achieve it because at the end of the day only 11 players can go out on the field there's still other avenues to be heavily involved in the game and I think commentary is a perfect one just because you can be as up close as possible and as up close as you would with as a player and you tell the story to so many people you know at home watching so you get that opportunity can you tell us your favorite moment as a commentator it actually just happened a couple days ago basically one of my favorite ones as crazy as it sounds would have been the Netherlands winning that super over and I know it's against the West Indies but just the fact that I could call it um first nation like the Netherlands they went on obviously to qualify for the World Cup but a couple nights ago when Rakim Kwon was scored that hundred obviously I had the great great privilege to be on air whilst he got to the hundred and just to see the backdrop and I think the way I described it it's probably the first time and only time I give myself a tiny bit of credit I'm usually hard on myself but I think I did well with that and it gave the moment what it deserved because it was truly a sensational innings yeah well Nikhil we want to thank you so much as I said you're a sportsmax family and you know I had a pleasure meeting you actually in person look forward to working with you some more thanks a lot Murray and thanks to the sportsmax family yeah we just had to play that commentary again Nikhil Utamchandani top guy really top guy Lance Whitaker I wonder though Nikhil Utamchandani says that he started out as a wicked keeper did some bowling doesn't sound like it was pretty good admitted that the batting wasn't great do you suspect he could make the sportsmax cricket team well you'd have to do trials unlike Daniel Azar I would suspect you'd have to do a trial we haven't seen him we haven't seen him Ricardo so he'd have to go through a trial process Nikhil Utamchandani but if he plays as well as he talks he's a shoo-in well he clearly doesn't though yeah but the sportsmax level is not the highest level well you're struggling to make it so but I'm not young anymore so it's difficult for me to play at the same level that I played 30 years ago oh it's an age thing okay understand you do have great technique but you struggle to get the ball off the square and I wonder if that is because of age or that's how you've always been no it's because it because I don't play frequently so the timing is off I play cricket once every three years so obviously because you admitted that the technique is there yes but it's the timing if I play cricket once every three years you don't expect that I'm going to play a match and the shots are just flowing off the bat that that's not going to happen but I beg to differ Lance because I think the timing is there what is not there is the placement you can't seem to pick the gaps I'm not going to um protract this discussion Ricardo but I think I think you're being unfair because if I play I don't play cricket regularly at all I play football regularly so cricket is something that I play once in a blue moon so it's obvious that whatever you want to say it's the timing or the inability to get the ball off the square I hear my producer talking about power but the last innings I play I hit a couple of sixes and boundaries down at Melbourne you did but he didn't watch the match so he or you did yeah I wasn't at that much yeah I was actually caught on the boundary I was out caught on the boundary do you know that Melbourne is probably the smallest no it was a long it was a long boundary towards the the southern end that's a long bone the only long boundary at Melbourne is deep mid-wicked it was the boundary down at the southern end which is it's a longer than the one at the northern end it was at long on long on long off yes and I was batting I was batting at the top end but all the long on all the boundaries the long on long off boundaries at Melbourne are really short lines can we continue talking about Nikola Tam-Chandani no because we'd be happy to have him playing for playing playing playing for the sports max team when is our next match by the way are you are you still captain because I'm not sure I don't think anything has changed reminding viewers you have a chance to win tickets to the CPL final in Guyana it's set for September 24 with our stream to win promotion all you have to do is download the sports max app from the google play store or the app store and watch all the CPL matches live the user with most time spent on the app wins the promotion ends September 9 that's two days away so you've gotta get watching you've gotta get watching if you want to win that the prizes to Guyana yeah are we up on a break on the sports max zone I think we are let's do that