Photo: Andre Russell takes a brilliant catch falling backwards for the Jamaica Tallawahs against the Guyana Amazon Warriors yesterday. Russell held three catches, took one wicket and blasted 58 runs including a six off the last delivery to help his team secure a win.
A magnificent unbeaten knock of 58 from 24 deliveries by Andre Russell gave the Jamaica Tallawahs a last gasp win over the Guyana Amazon Warriors at Sabina Park in the Limacol Caribbean Premier League on Saturday. It was the third win in a row for the Tallawahs over the Warriors and their second this season.
Set a target of 138 on a fairly good track for batting, the defending champions seemed dead in the water at 46-3 after 10 overs, with the equation reading 92 required from 10 overs and Chris Gayle back in the pavilion.
Before the Tallawahs had batted themselves into trouble, they had produced a good spell of bowling as a team to restrict the Warriors to a gettable total on a grassy pitch, after skipper Chris Gayle had won the toss for the second time in as many days and put the opponents in to bat.
The Amazon Warriors seemed as though they were going to rip the game open early with Martin Guptil leaning into David Bernard Jr. who was given the new ball. Guptil would however fall to former teammate Daniel Vettori when he was bowled for 15. His replacement Mohammad Hafeez did not last long and when he went for 5 the Warriors were 23-2 in only the fifth over.
Denesh Ramdin joined Lendl Simmons and helped to push the score to 59 before he became the first of three catches for the enigmatic Russell when he was caught in the deep off the bowling of Jerome Taylor.
Taylor took three wickets in the game to back up his Man-of-the-Match performance the day before when he took four.
It looked like Christopher Barnwell and Simmons were going to steal the show but the Warriors kept losing wickets at key moments. Jimmy Neesham top-scored with 35 from 26 balls and was the last wicket to fall in the final over as his team finished on 137-9.
The trouble for the Tallawahs started early when opener Chadwick Walton went cheaply. Gayle who was uncharacteristically circumspect fell for 22 as the Tallawahs stuttered through the middle overs.
Russell joined the party to a standing ovation and set about getting his team back in the contest. The confident all-rounder and Owais Shah took some time to build a partnership before the big-hitter opened up his shoulders and started finding the boundary.
The efforts of Russell helped bring the equation more in line with the needs of the champions but the equation always favoured the bowling team.
Thirteen runs were required off the last over and 11 off the last three deliveries. Shah who made 21 not out, managed to get Russell on strike which meant 10 runs were needed off the last two balls. Russell hammered the penultimate ball over cover for 4 as Sabina Park stood on its feet. His innings included 6 sixes and three fours to add to his one wicket and three catches in the field.
It took a long time for the final ball to be bowled as Ramdin and his senior players gathered around Neesham advising him on which ball to bowl. In the end, it was the wrong delivery, a full toss, which Russell smashed into the George Headley stand to send Sabina Park into raptures and cap a Man-of-the-Match performance.
It was the second game of the Limacol CPL 2014 season to be decided by a six off the final delivery.
Speaking in a post-match interview Russell said, “I always backed myself to do it. In that situation the pressure is on the bowler.”
The Tallawahs will face the Barbados Tridents at Sabina Park today at 11:00am as they seek to make it three from three at home.
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