BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - IT was all fun and frolic for the Jamaica Tallawahs as they hammered the Guyana Amazon Warriors by nine wickets in a one-sided finals at Warner Park last evening (Aug. 7).
Looking to break the streak of losing in finals, the Warriors were inserted after dropping the toss and Rayad Emrit’s side never got off to a good start on a slow wicket.
They lost James Maddinson in the opening over without him troubling the scorers, as the score stood on 1 for 1, eight runs later the in-form Chris Lynn followed trying to cut a Shakib Al Hasan delivery, only to pick out Jonathan Foo in the deep.
It only got worse from then on for the Guyanese, as Dwayne Smith - who seemed out of sorts - was caught at long-on as he tried slogging Oshane Thomas.
Sohail Tanveer came in and threw his bat in a top score of 42 as the Warriors limped to a painful 93 runs, to put forward a poor batting display to silence the pro-Warriors fans.
They were rocked by a superb spell of bowling from Imam Wasim who took 3 for 21 from four overs.
With the string band in full flow, Jamaica Tallawahs Captain Chris Gayle ensured he did not leave anything to chance when he hammered the Guyana bowlers to all parts of the ground, in a knock of 54 from 27 balls.
The innings comprised of three 4s and six 6s, including one over that cost 17-runs, when he smacked bowler Steven Jacobs over deepish midwicket for a maximum, only to follow it up with another huge blow this time over long-on.
He then belted another boundary, when he straight-batted a wide delivery down the ground, but Warriors captain Emrit would have the last laugh when he dismissed Gayle trying to go for another big hit, only to sky one down to Jacobs who held on.
Kumar Sangakkara and Chadwick Walton guided the team to victory for only the loss of Gayle’s wicket.
A jubilant Gayle told the media after the victory that the win meant a lot to him, the entire country, the franchise holders and the team, noting that they had a great start to the tournament but slipped up coming into the finals.
That however did not stop them; he pointed out that they told themselves they have made it to the finals and they would be going all the way.
“I am happy with the overall performance, not only myself. I think that we played well as a team; the bowlers bowled well in the finals to actually restrict the number one team for 93 runs, and the matter we went about and finishing the game on a high is very pleasing.
Emrit on the other hand, commended the Tallawahs for the performance but noted that his side’s weakness was shown up just as it did at several points during the season.
“Tonight just wasn’t supposed to be because we didn’t get the runs that we wanted. Our batters has been doing a decent job for us throughout the tournament, but throughout the tournament batting first we were weak and it showed again tonight.”
Guyana Amazon Warriors have lost in finals in 2013, 2015 and 2016, while the Tallawahs won in 2016 and 2013.
