Photo: Chadwick Walton blasts for four during his innings of 53. (Getty Images)
A nail-biting finish between the table-toppers Jamaica Tallawahs and the Guyana Amazon Warriors brought a fantastic end to another glorious weekend of cricket in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T-20 competition. The defending champions Tallawahs managed to cling on to register a 4 run win in a gripping contest.
Sent in to bat by the Amazon Warriors, the Chris Gayle led Tallawahs got off to a reasonable start before Gayle fell for 11 caught in the deep off R. Beaton with the score on 49. His opening partner Chadwick Walton who top scored for the Tallawahs with 53 played a mature knock in helping to set the stage for what was his team’s highest score in the CPL. Walton formed a useful partnership with Adam Voges after Owais Shas was bowled for a one ball duck.
The ‘VW’ combination batted smoothly as they put on 55 for the third wicket before Walton was caught near the boundary by Lendl Simmons off the bowling of Sunil Narine. Voges and Andre Russell then combined to help the Tallawahs amass a useful 40 runs off the last four overs but the final push for runs was stymied by the fall of three wickets in the final over as the Tallawahs ended on 148 for 6 off their 20 overs.
The Amazon Warriors must have felt the 149 was a getable target and Simmons who top-scored with an unbeaten 68 along with Jimmy Neesham got them off to a solid start before Neesham fell for a run-a-ball 16. Mohammed Hafeez was looking to get set when he misread one from Nikita Miller and was bowled for 9. That brought skipper Denish Ramden to the crease and himself and Simmons looked set to steer the Warriors to their fourth consecutive win.
The pair put on 78 before Ramdin had to retire hurt with the score on 132 after pulling a Jerome Taylor full toss onto his helmet. They still needed 17 runs to win but the concerns in the Warriors dressing room disappeared after Ramdin’s replacement, Christopher Barnwell smashed the first delivery he faced for a huge six.
With the equation being 11 need off the last six deliveries the odds were in favour of the batting team, but Andre Russell produced a good final over to restrict the Warriors to just 7 runs, inflicting the first defeat of the season on the home team as the Tallawahs registered their first regular season win over the team they beat in the final last year.
Chadwick Walton was named man-of-the-match for his knock of 53 from 42 deliveries which included 6 fours and a six.
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