BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – The two top teams of the 2014 Caribbean Premier League were defeated by the two teams at the bottom of the standings in front of a packed Warner Park Cricket Stadium in Saturday’s games of that competition.
After the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel’s defeat to the Barbados Tridents on Thursday the Jamaica Tallawahs had an opportunity to seize the coveted top spot versus the second from bottom St. Lucia Zouks. The top place team at the end of the preliminary rounds earns an automatic spot in the finals.
In that game, a strong bowling performance from the St. Lucia Zouks restricted the second place Jamaica Tallawahs to 143 all out.
Mervin Matthew led the Zouks charge as he finished with figures of three for 15 from his four overs to limit the strong Tallawahs batting line up.
After a cautious start from Captain Chris Gayle, his fellow opener Chadwick Walton look to lay the foundation for the other batsmen. Gayle was however dismissed for a mere three runs which started a slide of Jamaican wickets at regular intervals.
Following Gayle’s departure Walton kept up his momentum of scoring before being dismissed by Liam Sebastian for 48. His dismissal then led to a flurry of Tallawahs’ wickets that restricted them to 86-5 from 12 overs
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Some late order contributions from Juan Theron and Dave Bernard pushed the Tallawahs to a respectable 143.
In their turn at the crease the Zouks looked at ease chasing the Tallawahs target with Andre Fletcher and Kevin Pietersen steadying the ship following the early fall of Johnson Charles.
When both batsmen were however removed lbw to Theron and Andre Russell pressure built up on the Zouks dressing room.
However some power hitting from Sohail Tanvir who cracked 20 from seven balls steered the Zouks to a seven wicket victory.
Following the game Tallawahs coach Mickey Arthur claimed the game was a wakeup call for his side.
“This was a good wake up call for us ahead of the knockout games next week. Despite how the match went for us today, I am happy with where we are at the moment and the senior players have had a really positive influence. It just wasn’t our day."
Zouks coach Matthew Maynard hailed his bowler’s effort earlier in the day.
“It is not meant to be for us this year in the competition but there is plenty to play for still ahead of next year. We executed our bowling strategies much better today and that was seen in Mervin Matthews’ performance, which was magnificent.”
Matthews was named Man of the Match for his bowling effort.
In the second game the Antigua Hawksbills earned their first victory of the tournament as they defeated the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel.
The Red Steel were limited to 113 all out from their allotted overs. A fine bowling display from Ben Laughlin who picked up three wickets for seven runs to lead the Hawksbills charge.
The Red Steel batsmen were however guilty of some poor shot selection during their innings. The stand out performer in the Red Steel innings was Evin Lewis who anchored the innings with 38 from 36 balls but was also a victim of poor shot selection.
Antigua on the other hand laboured to their target of 114 despite a good start from captain Marlon Samuels who was promoted as an opener following his performance in the last game.
After Samuels departure the Hawksbills innings failed to gather any momentum but was stabilised by David Hussey and Orlando Peters.
When Peter fell to a Kevon Cooper slower ball and Hussey was dismissed lbw to Kevin O’Brien the Hawksbills were heading down a familiar path of getting close but not being able to complete the victory.
Needing 26 for victory from 18 balls Hussey’s replacement Carlos Brathwaite smacked three huge sixes off his first three balls to all but end Red Steel hopes of a victory. The winning runs came in the 19th over of the pads of Devon Thomas to finally put a smile on the Antiguan faces.
In the post-match briefing Hawksbills coach Tim Nielsen was relieved to bow out of the competition with a victory.
“It is just nice to finish with a win as no team wants to lose all its games in any tournament. We bowled well today and did not panic when we were under a bit of pressure with the bat.”
Simon Hemlot Coach of the Red Steel on the other hand expressed concern about his team’s batting ahead of the knockout stages.
“We are still in a good position as we have qualified for the final week of the tournament. However, our batting display today, and in our last match, is of real concern.”
