Brief scorecard:
Jamaica Tallawahs:
A Russell: 44 (24b 5*4, 3*6); R Powell: 44 (34b 2*4, 4*6)
K Cooper: 3/22; D Bravo 2/39
Trinbago Knight Riders:
H Amla: 42 (36b 2*4, 2*6); D Ramdin: 31 (24b 1*4, 2*6)
A Russell: 4/23; D Steyn: 2/21
The Jamaica Tallawahs have stuck some good form in the Caribbean Premier League and have now won their 3rd consecutive game in the league on Tuesday.
In the 19th game of the season, the Tallawahs took on the Trinbago Knight Riders at the Sabina Park in Jamaica. The Knight Riders won the toss and chose to field and had a great start to the innings as Chris Gayle went for a not in just the second over.
C Walton also followed him a couple of overs later leaving the Tallawahs at 23/2 in 4 overs. However, Kumar Sangakkara and R Powell took the responsibility to build up the innings and took the score to 91 at the end of 12 overs.
K Cooper was once again back into the attack and claimed both the batsmen in the space of three deliveries in an over he gave just a run-away setting back the Tallawahs at a crucial time.
Sakib al Hasan and Imad Wasim could not up the scoring rate and perished while Andre Russel stood strong and moved to 44 off 24 with some lusty blows to get the target up to 159.
It was not an impossible target but needed some matured batting from the Knight Riders which was not the case come the end of the game.
B McCullum went early while Colin Munro followed him a few balls later leaving the Knight Riders at 40/2 at the end of the powerplay.
W Perkins who was playing calm innings lost his wicket to Russell in the 7th over which saw Umar Akmal and Hashim Amla put on a decent partnership.
However, Akmal went for 11 off Shakib’s bowling at the end of the 10th over with the Knight Riders still requiring 99 runs off the last 10 overs.
It needed a strong effort from the batting lineup from now and Amla looked to provide it in patches. Denesh Ramdin and Hashim Amla put on a good partnership to bring down the asking rate to 9 with 6 overs to go.
However, Amla went for one shot too many and perished for 42 of 36 and Darren Bravo soon followed trying to hit out every ball. Bravo went for 13 of 7 balls leaving 39 required from the last 4 overs.
Andre Russell picked two more wickets in the 17th over leaving the Knight Riders with 39 required off the last 3 with just 2 wickets in hand. It was a target now out of reach as the Tallawahs managed to sneak in a 19-run victory come the end of the game.
Andre Russell was named the man of the match for his 44 with the bat and 4-for with the ball and he helped his side to the top of the table with a point more than the Amazon Warriors in the second place.
The Knight Riders are in the 4th place, 4 points off the top of the table and need some victories in the coming days.