The Semi-FInal of the Caribbean Premier League saw Kieron Pollard’s Barbados Tridents be put into bat by Chris Gayle‘s Jamaica Tallawahs.
The Tridents immediately found themselves in trouble first Dwayne Smith was given out to a dubious LBW decision and then South Africa’s Vernon Philander nicked out Jason Holder for five runs and Barbados were reeling at 6/2 after two overs.
Rayon Reifer and Pakistan’s Shoaib Malik steadied the ship with Malik putting Muttiah Muralitharan and Nikita Miller into the stands during a partnership of 102.
Reifer and Malik departed in consecutive balls with Malik trying one big shot too many and was out for 49 runs caught on the bounday by Chadwick Waldon from the bowling of Gayle with Barbados on 108/4 after 17 overs.
Pollard was in next and looked promising scoring 13 runs of five balls before he fell in unlucky circumstances.
With Andre- Russel bowling to Azhar Mahmood – Mahmood hit the ball straight back and it deflected off Russel’s shoe and onto the stumps to leave Pollard short of his ground at the non strikers end.
The Tridents would go on to make 148 runs off their 20 overs.
In reply the Jamaica Tallawahs did not get off to the best start with Gayle falling cheaply for three runs in the fourth over to leave them a 16/1.
Chadwick Walton and Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara went about rebuilding the innings and the team had reached 50 runs by the end of the 7th over.
They were in control until Walton had a rush of blood to the head and threw away his wicket.With Pollard bowling – he sent by the ball down the legside for a wide but the keeper Jonathan Carter quickly threw down the stumps leaving Walton out of his crease.
Walton was run out for 45 runs and the team still needed 61 runs for victory off eight overs.The veteran Sangakkara showed all of this experience striking boundaries when necessary and picking up singles on his way to a half century.
The next ball Andre Russel dispatched Holder into the stands to bring the team’s score to 129 with 15 balls remaining.
With 12 balls remaining they only needed 15 runs to win but Russel seemed to be in a hurry and promptly planted Mahmood into the stands for three consecutive sixes.
Russel scored 29 runs of six deliveries as Jamaica won the match by seven wickets and will now play Guyana in Saturday’s final.
Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download CricRocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more! 🚀☄️
