The Jamaica Tallawahs have secured a place in the knockout stages of the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 cricket tournament with a win over the Barbados Tridents. The match, played at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica on Wednesday, was ahead of their scheduled arrival in South Florida today, July 21.
Central Broward Stadium will host the final round of matches before the knock out stages of the 2016 contest. The anticipated matches, July 28 to the 31st, are expected to be played to a sold out crowd over the four- day period.
The league-leading Tallawahs were the first to arrive in the ‘Sunshine State’ and is the only team to qualify for the knockout stages of the tournament. With the team winning all four home games, they have secured a spot at ‘finals week’ in St. Kitts & Nevis. The Tallawahs are slated for a practice session at the Stadium on Friday where they will also participate in a children’s clinic from 10am to 1pm hosted by the league in conjunction with the International Cricket Council (ICC). Damien O’Donohoe, Chief Executive Officer of the Hero CPL will be joined by the cricket-loving, City of Lauderhill Mayor, Richard J. Kaplan and Broward County Commissioner Dale V.C. Holness at the stadium.
Meanwhile, St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots are expected to arrive in town on Friday, with Barbados Tridents expected Sunday, July 24. The Guyana Amazon Warriors are expected to arrive on Monday, ahead of the St. Lucia Zouks and Trinidad and Tobago’s Knight Riders who are expected to arrive on July 27th.
The historic leg of Hero CPL fixtures will are as follows: Thursday July 28 – Guyana Amazon Warriors v Barbados Tridents at 7pm, Friday July 29 – St Kitts & Nevis Patriots v Trinbago Knight Riders at 7pm. On Saturday July 30 the St. Lucia Zouks vs Jamaica Tallawahs will be played at noon and the Barbados Tridents vs Guyana Amazon Warriors at 4pm, Sunday July 31. The Trinbago Knight Riders vs. St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots will play at noon and the Jamaica Tallawahs vs the St. Lucia Zouks match will be at 4 pm.
In Wednesday’s victory over the Tridents, it was an explosive innings from Chadwick Walton, and runs from Kumar Sangakkara and Rovman Powell allowing the Tallawahs to post their highest total of Hero CPL 2016 in a game that was shorted as a result of a rain storm.
The Tridents chase slowed with the only bright spark being another half century for Nicholas Pooran who continues to impress fans and teammates. The contest was reduced to 18 overs a side, but once the skies had cleared, Chadwick Walton scored at a frightening lick. The Tallawahs lost Chris Gayle early but Walton made up for it with a 97, painfully close to his first ever T20 hundred. Walton shared a partnership of 127 runs with Sangakkara, the best stand for the Tallawahs at this year’s Hero CPL.
The score was at 44-3 with the required rate already up to nearly 13 an over with Nicholas Pooran and Shoaib Malik at the crease and they needed a significant partnership from those two batsmen to bring them back into the contest. When Malik departed 11 runs later the Tridents needed a miracle from captain Kieron Pollard to stave off defeat.
It was too much even for Pollard who was dismissed by Dale Steyn in his last match for the Tallawahs before he too leaves, and the pace-man finished with figures of 4-27, picking up his 200th T20 wicket in the process. Pooran continued to impress for the Tridents as he scored the fastest ever fifty for the Barbados Tridents, but there was too much for the 20-year-old to do on his own. He was eventually run out for 51 from 25 as the Tridents stumbled to a 36 run defeat.
