Lendl Simmons and Martin Guptill made mincemeat out of the Jamaica Tallawahs bowling attack to make lightweight of the modest total of 134 posted by Chris Gayle’s side after Guyana Amazon Warriors won the toss and elected to field. After a cautious start in the powerplay overs, Simmons and Guptill made it a no-contest with clean hitting of the highest quality as a flurry of boundaries and sixes left the Jamaicans gasping for breath. After Andre Russell’s blitz in the 1st playoffs the previous night, Jamaica’s high came to a screeching halt and crashed out of Carribean Premier League (CPL) 2014.
Gayle and co started rather slowly. The going run-rate barely touched six until the ninth over and in pursuit of quick runs, lost quite a few wickets in the middle overs and the innings began to stretch quite a bit. The Jamaican top order failed to get things going and Gayle had yet another disappointing outing at the crease. Chadwick Walton was impressive, but his early struggle at the crease dampened the run flow.
Krishmar Santokie and Pakistan’s Mohmammd Hafeez were neat and stifled the batsmen for runs. The duo were a revelation during the powerplay overs and frustrated the Jamaican batsmen aplenty. This meant that Russell’s big-hitting prowess needed to rescue his team once again. He started from where he left off against Guyana and struck a couple of meaty blows. Santokie’s brilliant work of his own bowling caught him short of the crease and Jamaica could only muster an under-par total.
Guptill and Simmons started in the same vein as their opponents too. The early overs was spent trying to analyse the wicket before the batsmen cut loose. Simmons calculated his big hits whereas Guptill was relentless and bludgeoned the opposition’s bowling. Guptill was severe on his favoured leg side and Simmons was scintillating straight down the ground. Even international stars like former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori and pacer Jerome Taylor were expensive and bereft of answers. Jamaica threw in the towel around the 10th over and Guyana cruised to the final with all their wickets intact. The winning runs was hit by Guptill and the ball went through Gayle’s hand and through to the boundary. It probably summed up how demoralised Jamaica were.
Brief scores:
Jamaica Tallawahs 134 for 6 in 20 Overs (Chadwick Walton 34, Nkrumah Bonner 21, Andre Russell 20; Mohammad Hafeez 1 for 19, Krishmar Santokie 1 for 22) lost to Guyana Amazon Warriors 138 for no loss in 14.5 Overs (Lendl Simmons 71*, Martin Guptill 66*) by 10 wickets
(R Vishal is a journalist and alumnus of Asian College of Journalism. He can be followed on Twitter @vishhell)
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