Tuesday 23rd June 2015 – Bridgetown, Barbados
The Barbados Tridents made it two wins from two in
defence of their Hero Caribbean Premier League title in front of a packed home
crowd at the Kensington Oval. The Appleton Estate Jamaica Tallawahs struggled
to keep up with the rate chasing 162 to win as Robin Peterson proved to be a
match winning wicket taker for the second time in two matches. This victory
leaves the Tridents sitting pretty at the top of the table at this early stage
in the tournament.
The Tridents got off to a steady start as they made it
to 48 without loss off their six over Powerplay. Both Dwayne Smith and Dilshan
Munaweera were untroubled by the Tallawahs attack which bowled too many bad
balls to release the pressure on the opposition opening pair. It was Smith that
took the role of aggressor, hitting seven boundaries including two sixes in his
innings of 56. Munaweera on the other hand was much more happy to look for
singles and give his partner the strike.
It took the introduction of the bowling of Nikita
Miller to build some pressure when his excellent first over went for just four
runs. In the very next over Rusty Theron picked up the first scalp for Jamaica when he
had Munaweera caught on the mid-wicket boundary for 24 off 25 balls.
The run rate continued to drop, and having been going
at eight runs an over in the Powerplay, by the halfway stage of their innings
the Tridents rate was down to a run a ball. They had wickets in hand but needed
to accelerate to set a defendable total.
Smith showed his intention to press on in the 11th
over when he struck Krishmar Santokie for 13 runs in just four balls but he
never really found his best shot making in this innings. Between them Smith and
Shoaib Malik discovered some of the impetus that was lost putting on a
partnership of 60 runs in just 48 balls.
Theron was fantastic throughout the middle overs,
conceding just 19 runs off his full allocation and picking the important wicket
of Munaweera. However, it was Andre Russell that finally dismissed Smith who
couldn’t keep out a yorker. While Smith’s 56 runs were valuable they came off
53 balls leaving a lot to do at the death to push the score past 150.
Kieron Pollard, man of the match in the first game of
the tournament, couldn’t reproduce his form in this one. He was brilliantly
caught in the deep by Theron who dived at full length to dismiss the Tridents
captain for just five.
Shoaib Malik stuck around to make 42 off 28 deliveries
while some excellent late order hitting from Jonathan Carter and West Indies limited overs captain Jason Holder took the
Tridents to a respectable total of 161-4.
Chris Gayle and Chadwick Walton took their time to get
themselves set. As ever Gayle was circumspect early on, backing himself to
accelerate once he was in. As the leading run scorer in the history of Twenty20
cricket the approach is one that tends to work. This time it didn’t, when Gayle
tried to cut loose he skewed a high catch off Rayad Emrit that was well taken
by Holder. Gayle made nine runs off 15 balls.
The introduction of Robin Peterson into the attack
brought wickets yet again as Walton was dismissed when he missed a ball that
drifted into his pads that bowled him. Just two balls later Mahela Jayawardene
was out stumped to a ball that turned past his outside edge.
As the wickets fell the required rate went up, but
Australian Chris Lynn
managed to keep the target within sight with some proactive running and
aggressive stroke play. In combination with Horace Miller he put on 51 runs in
35 balls as the two batsmen ran brilliantly between the wickets.
Just as Lynn
looked like he was going to get his side home Peterson picked up another
wicket, his sixth of the tournament, to leave the Tallawahs needing 10 an over
with their top four batsman back in the shed.
When Andre Russell smashed Ravi Rampaul straight into
the waiting hands of Pollard it left the Tallawahs needing a miracle
performance from Horace Miller who was playing just his fifth T20 match. Miller
managed to make it to 30 before he fell going for one big shot too many, his
highest score in this format of the game.
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