The fierce combat between the two rival teams began with captain of the St. Lucia Zouks, Darren Sammy, winning the toss and sending the Tallawahs to bat first. However, the boys from the reggae island failed to gain early ground on the Zouks.
The 24th match of the tournament, which kicked off around noon, saw the reigning champions coming out of the starting blocks on a weak foot, as they struggled to get their momentum going, as they did in previous matches.
The game however took a turn for the worst, as the notably hard-hitting captain of the Jamaican Tallawahs, Chris Gayle, was sent back to the benches, after being dismissed leg before wicket (LBW) shot. He managed to only make three runs off 10 balls. He was bowled by Shane Shillingford.
The next wicket to fall was Chadwick Walton, who was just two runs shy of reaching his half century, when he attempted to make score another boundary but was caught. Walton managed to make 48 runs; the highest for the Tallawahs in the match
But, just two balls after Walton was ousted, Adam Voges was caught by Tino Best only contributing four runs to his team’s tally. It was not soon after that Owais Shaw, Andre Russell and David Bernard Junior were all bowled out for 8, 18 and 19 runs respectively.
The Tallawahs managed to set a target of 144.
But the set target was an easy achievement for the Zouks as they registered a number of early sixes and fours, before managing to secure the required runs with only three losses to their line-up.
The Zouks opening Batsman, Andre Fletcher, scored the highest of the match with just one run shy of century off of 35 balls. But, his continued efforts to push his team to their 2nd win were put on halt, as he was dismissed by an LBW from a Yorker served by Russell for 99.
The Man of the match award was given to Mervin Mathews for his three wickets from 15.
He was awarded with a gigantic bottle of Fines Wine, compliments of Carambola Beach Bar.
In a post-match press conference, Fletcher said, “It is a good wicket here at Warner Park for batting and the short boundaries are obviously helpful. However, if you put the ball in the right areas, there is a lot there for the bowlers as well, which we did today.”
Coach of the Jamaican Tallawahs, Mickey Archer, explained the teams defeat to the Zouks was a wakeup call for the team, “This was a good wake up call for us ahead of the knockout games next week. Despite how the match went for us today, I am happy with where we are at the moment and the senior players have had a really positive influence, it just wasn’t our day.”
“It is not meant to be for us this year in the competition but there is plenty to play for still ahead of next year. We executed our bowling strategies much better today and that was seen in Mervin Matthews’ performance, which was magnificent,” Coach of the St. Lucia Zouks making his remarks after his team’s victory.
After the match the Tallawahs fell behind the Steel’s on net run rate. There is still however enough time for them to secure automatic qualification. This will all depend on if they win strong against Barbados on Sunday.