2014 Limacol Caribbean Premier League – Match Report 28:

(CPL) Jamaica Tallawahs (158-6) beat Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel (155-6) by 4 wickets with 2 balls remaining

Wednesday 13th August 2014 – Basseterre, St. Kitts – A brilliant late order batting performance from Andre Russell secured victory for the Jamaica Tallawahs in the first play-off in this year’s Limacol Caribbean Premier League. It looked as if the Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel had done enough to win this game, but Russell’s arrival at the crease changed all of that. The Tallawahs were five wickets down and needing 12 runs an over when Russell came in to bat. Thanks to his efforts, the Jamaicans won the game with two balls to spare.

A fantastic innings from Ross Taylor meant that the Red Steel had a decent total, but with Samuel Badree ruled out with injury, they would have to defend it without their best bowler. Taylor was well supported by Darren Bravo, and they would have won easily if it had not been for the Russell fireworks.

The Red Steel innings began slowly as three wickets inside the Powerplay left them struggling for momentum. Kevin O’Brien was the first man to go, edging the ball to first slip. After an excellent run of form in the middle of the tournament, the Irishman has struggled. His 11 runs here was his highest score in four innings. The Red Steel took a gamble with Nasir Jamshed who had not played since the Trinidad & Tobago side’s second match. He replaced Javon Searles, but the change did not work as the Pakistani player pulled a ball from David Bernard in to the hands of Nkrumah Bonner on the square leg boundary. Just three balls later, Evin Lewis repeated the trick, departing in exactly the same fashion as his team mate.

Taylor and Bravo went about steadying the ship, and they took the score from 36 to 146. The partnership could have been broken with the score on 87 when Taylor skied a ball from Andre Russell, but Nikita Miller and Bernard collided as both went to take the catch. Neither man was hurt, but the chance was gone.

Taylor made the most of his luck as he went on to score 70 runs from just 44 balls in a partnership of over 100 runs with the younger Bravo brother. Taylor accelerated after the chance was put down, scoring another 43 runs off 17 balls to really make the Tallawahs pay for their poor fielding.

When Taylor fell slogging into the legside, it slowed things down again for the Red Steel. Darren Bravo went in the same over to leave two new batsmen at the crease for the last seven balls of the innings. It was therefore not surprising that they only managed a run a ball from that point until the end of the innings.

A middling score meant that the Red Steel bowlers would have their work cut out, especially with Badree missing. They got off to the best possible start when Chris Gayle was dismissed LBW for just a single by Shannon Gabriel. The replays showed Gayle was unlucky to go as the ball had pitched outside leg stump.

The rate continued to rise as the Tallawahs also lost early wickets. After Gayle had gone, the Jamaicans lost the wickets of Chadwick Walton and Adam Voges, both men making single figures. As in the last match, Bonner was the only member of the top order who found a way to make a score of any substance. The man who was picking up the other end was Sulieman Benn. He mixed his pace well and his three wickets were well deserved.

Bonner was run out for 39 and the game looked like it was over, although Andre Russell did not want to give up. He blasted the ball from the moment he arrived in the middle. He was particularly harsh on Jason Mohammed. The off spinner was in the side as a replacement for Badree, but he could not come close to matching the man he was deputising for. Russell went to his fifty with a shot that broke his bat, off just 22 deliveries. Russell rode his luck, but when Evin Lewis put him down in the 19th, it looked like it was the Jamaicans night.

In combination with Rusty Theron, he just refused to give up. Russell finished on 62 not out, but it was Theron who hit the winning runs, a flat six over extra cover that saw his side through to the second playoff game tomorrow night.

QUOTES:

Mickey Arthur, Jamaica Tallawahs coach, said; “Ten overs into our innings, I really didn’t think we would do it, but with two overs to go, I was very confident. Andre Russell was our last hope – he has won three matches for us in the tournament and he was brilliant again tonight.

“I am still waiting for us to put together a complete performance – we bowled well to begin with today and again in the final three overs, but we need to concentrate in the field for the full twenty. In terms of our batting tomorrow, we really need our top order to begin performing and not just rely on Chris Gayle and Andre Russell.”

Man of the Match for the Jamaica Tallawahs, Andre Russell, said; “When we were six wickets down, we were in a bit of trouble and the run rate was rising, but hitting a boundary straight away right out of the middle got me going nicely. This gives us a lot of confidence for tomorrow’s match and all the hard work in the nets paid off for me today.”

Simon Helmot, Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel coach, said; “I am obviously so disappointed with the result as I feel we had a great opportunity to get to the semi-final. The last two overs cost us dearly with the dropped catches and the misfields, but in many ways we played well throughout the game and the tournament as a whole. We were just not quite precise enough when bowling to Andre Russell and his amazing innings took the game away from us.

“I have really enjoyed my time in the Caribbean with the Red Steel and have made lots of friends. I have coached in the IPL and in Australia but nothing compares to the Caribbean. The 36 hour flight home will be a long one knowing we came so close, but that is T20 cricket.”

2014 Limacol Caribbean Premier League – Match Report 29:

Guyana Amazon Warriors (138-0) beat Jamaica Tallawahs (134-6) by 10 wickets with 32 balls remaining

Thursday 14th August 2014, Basseterre, St Kitts – An excellent opening partnership between Lendl Simmons and Martin Guptill set up a thumping victory for the Guyana Amazon Warriors as they booked their place in the Limacol Caribbean Premier League final with ease. Both openers reached half centuries as defending champions, the Jamaica Tallawahs, were eliminated from the tournament. Both knocks were near chanceless efforts as they became the first side to win a CPL match by ten wickets.

Having batted brilliantly in the first play-off game on Wednesday, the Tallawahs set a below par total as they never recovered from a slow start that saw them go at less than a run a ball inside the fielding restrictions. Some tight bowling from the Amazon Warriors meant that it was a cautious opening few overs, but the Tallawahs went too far into their shell on an excellent St. Kitts pitch.

Chadwick Walton was almost run out in the third over of the Jamaican innings, but the throw at the stumps was off target. Although chances for wickets were few and far between, so were boundaries. While the strength of the Warriors bowling attack made this low risk approach understandable, it was leaving a lot of work for the Jamaican batsmen at the end of the innings.
The first wicket did not fall until the tenth over, Walton the man to go as he was caught in the deep off the bowling of Sunil Narine. The issue for the Tallawahs was that, while they had wickets in hand, they had only reached 56 by the end of the first ten overs. The pressure was on Gayle to accelerate in the second half of the innings having eaten up so many deliveries early on. He tried to push things on but fell in the attempt. He was well caught by Simmons at long on as he tried to clear the ropes.
That left the middle order with a lot to do, and much would have been expected of the experienced Adam Voges. However, he just could not get going and was out stumped off a wide from Mohammad Hafeez. The Pakistani overseas player did a brilliant job at keeping things tight, going for just 19 runs off his four overs.

All eyes turned to Andre Russell. Fresh from his brilliant match winning knock in the first playoff game, it was up to him to get this misfiring innings going. He looked to be finding his feet when he was dismissed in the most unfortunate of circumstances. Nkrumah Bonner hit a ball into the ground that looped over the head of Krishmar Santokie. The bowler managed to get his finger tips to it and it dribbled into the stumps at the non-strikers end to see Russell run out well short of his ground.
A six each from Rusty Theron and Jerome Taylor finished the innings well, but it never looked like enough runs. It would take a brilliant bowling performance to win this and the Tallawahs could not find one.

The Warriors made the target that the Tallawahs had set look ridiculously light in their Powerplay. They too managed to negotiate the fielding restrictions without losing a wicket, but they passed 50 in the process. The Guyana openers have done a brilliant job at switching the role of the aggressor through this tournament. Here, it was Martin Guptill that was the man to take up the charge, with Lendl Simmons happy to give him the strike. Then the roles switched just as quickly as it became Simmons that was on the attack.

The two openers had set up the win by the time half the overs had gone, having taken their side two thirds of the way to their target with all ten wickets still in hand. Gayle tried to shuffle his bowlers to find a break through, but they just did not have enough runs to play with. The Guyana batsmen found the boundary with ease, never looking troubled at any point in the innings.

Simmons became the leading run scorer in this year’s tournament during this innings, and barring something remarkable from one of the Barbados Tridents’ batsmen in the final on Saturday, he will finish top of the run scoring tree. Perhaps his only challenge for the leading batsman title is his opening partner who is fourth on the list.
The Amazon Warriors will go into Saturday’s final full of confidence while the Tallawahs ended this year’s CPL two wins short of defending their title.

QUOTES:

Guyana Amazon Warriors captain, Denesh Ramdin, said; “It was a very important toss to win today as the pitch looked like it would be a bit slow to begin with and hard for the batsmen to get the ball away. Narine then bowled very well in the middle overs and we were able to restrict them to below 140.

“Guptill and Simmonds then batted very well and we are very happy with our performance and we can take that confidence into the final on Saturday. The Tridents have a very strong batting line up and the toss again will be crucial. There are two good teams in the final, both playing well, and whoever handles the pressure better, will win.”

Jamaica Tallawahs coach, Mickey Arthur, said; “Our batting has been very disappointing since we arrived in St. Kitts. 180 was the minimum total we needed to set them tonight and again we were not able to give our strong bowling attack enough runs to defend. The four teams that made the final week of the competition are very close in terms of ability and any one of them could beat the other on their day.

I have enjoyed my time at the CPL very much indeed. The Caribbean is a wonderful place to play cricket and I think it is on a par with any other T20 tournament in the world in terms of atmosphere and quality of cricket. It will go from strength to strength.

“We will need to boost our middle order for next year – we need at least two more batsmen and it would be great to get someone of the stature of Jacques Kallis.”

(CPL)