Guyana Amazon Warriors vs Jamaica Tallawahs
As the final set of matches dawn in the CPL, teams are looking at giving their all to make it to the playoffs. Guyana Amazon Warriors playing against the Jamaica Tallawahs will have the home advantage against the currently ranked second in the table.
The Tallawahs’ captain Rovman Powell won the toss and chose to field first. He made it clear that the decision was based on the damp pitch conditions as it could get wetter as the match progresses.
Warriors keen on putting a good team performance in front of their home crowd opened with Chandrapaul Hemraj and Rahmanullah Gurbaz. The Tallawahs started their bowling attack with Mohammad Amir. It wasn’t long until Gurbaz was dismissed for a first-ball duck by a seam-up delivery from Chris Green that resulted in a thick edge falling into Kennar Lewis’ hands in the 2nd over. Shai Hope came in to replace him. Hope started well but Hemraj found it difficult to go for the big shots. At the end of the 4th over, he was dismissed LBW by Green. Despite going in for a review, the decision from the umpire was retained. Shakib Al Hasan, new to the crease was dismissed for a golden duck by an LBW of Imad Wasim’s bowling, an over which saw just a single run of the 5th over. At the end of the powerplay, the Warriors were 35/3, and struggling to score runs as Green and Wasim continued bowling very tight. Mohammad Nabi came to bowl in the 10th over and picked up his first wicket, dismissing Warriors Captain Hetmyer with an LBW decision which stayed out despite going for a review. Halfway through the innings, the Tallawahs’ bowlers did a great job as the opponents were only at 62/4. It was Hope who stood tall for the Warriors. His half-century off 36 balls, came at the end of the 13th over. Despite Romario Shepherd getting out at the other end to Fabian Allen, Hope carried his team until the 16th over. He was finally dismissed for 60 off 45 balls, by Nabi as he attempted a pull shot and the ball went under his bat and crashed into the middle stump. Nabi was at it again and got Gudakesh Motie’s wicket with an LBW, leaving the Warriors at 100/7 by the end of the 16th. It looked like Tallawahs would be chasing a very low score, with Odean Smith and Keemo Paul at the crease. Smith started attacking the bowlers hitting 5 sixes, scoring a massive 31 runs of the 18th over. Paul then joined him scoring 24 runs in the following over. Despite breaking the deadly partnership in the last over, the Warriors managed to score 74 runs off the last 3 overs, putting them in a comfortable position with a competitive score of 178/8 by the end of their innings.
Tallawahs openers Brandon King and Kennar Lewis came into the crease to chase a target of 179. They were off to a decent start scoring 23 runs in 3 overs. The second ball in the 4th over saw Lewis leave with an LBW dismissal from Imran Tahir. Kirk McKenzie came in and along with King, they made sure that Tallawahs had a good start and by the end of the powerplay, they were 45/1. King and McKenzie were looking in good shape for the next few overs until an unfortunate run-out dismissal saw McKenzie leave after scoring 15 runs. The Warriors started to pull back things and at the halfway mark, Tallawahs were 58/2. Despite losing Captain Powell on the 1st ball of the 11th over, King changed his gears and was at his best, showcasing some spectacular shots to keep the team at pace. Even though he didn’t get much support at the other end, King stood still and played magnificently to keep the team’s hopes of winning till the very end. With one over remaining the Tallawahs needed 20 to win. King, who was batting on 97, hit an 87m long massive six of the first ball and celebrated his hundred. He hit 7 sixes and 8 fours on the way to his century. The six gave hope to the Tallawahs to pull off a victory. But unfortunately, the wonderful innings came to an end when he was run out trying to come back for a second to keep strike and thus ended a top-class knock of 104 from 66 balls. The game now was heavily in favour of the Warriors as they packed up the remaining 2 wickets in successful deliveries. Which meant the Tallawahs were all out before the last ball of the innings scoring 166 after 19.5 overs. Odean Smith was declared the Man of the Match for his effort with both bat and ball.
A brilliant batting performance from King helped Tallawahs to never give up until the very last moment. After losing two games in succession, the Tallawahs will now look forward to winning their last match of the campaign against St Lucia Kings, to finish within the top four spots and proceed to the playoffs.