BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - A speedy 62 of mere 27 deliveries by Andre Russell powered the Jamaican Tallawahs to a four wicket win over the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel and move on to the second Semi-Final playoff versus the Guyana Amazon Warriors tomorrow (Aug. 14).
With his team struggling on 72-5 chasing 156 for victory with only 7.2 overs remaining needing another 84 runs for victory.
Russell the whacked four 6s and five 4s as he rapidly turned the tables on the Red Steel team who were seemingly running away with the victory. Russell brought up his half century with a shot the broke his bat but the replacement continued Russell’s dominance.
In the 19th over Russell was dropped by Evin Lewis and made the Red Steel pay by hitting the next two balls for a six and a four respectively leaving his side with just eight to get from the final over.
With Russell on the non-striker end, he had to watch as Dwayne Bravo bowled to his partner Rusty Theron after dot ball with the first delivery, scampered for two runs to reduce the gap to six from four balls. Theron then skied a ball and Lewis was under the spotlight again as he made a mess of the opportunity which led to, two more runs being scored. Theron then blasted a six off the fourth ball of the over to power the Tallawahs to the next stage of the tournament.
Earlier in the day a masterful innings from Ross Taylor guided the Red Steel to their total of 155. Taylor was well supported by Darren Bravo. Taylor scored 70 runs from just 44 balls as he and Bravo put on a partnership of 110 for the third wicket.
Following the game Man of the Match, Andre Russell, cited his first ball as what gave him the confidence to play his match winning knock.
“When we were six wickets down, we were in a bit of trouble and the run rate was rising, I was not concerned about the wickets I just wanted to be positive…but hitting a boundary straight away right out of the middle gave me the confidence.
Red Steel coach Simon Hemlot expressed his disappointment with the result and felt the game was lost in the final two overs.
"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.
The Tallawahs victory means they will play the Amazon Warriors on Thursday to see who will meet the Barbados Tridents in the Finals.
