The CPL semi-finals have all been finalised. The Trinbago Knight Riders will come up against the St Lucia Zouks on Thursday in the second play off in the 2016 Hero CPL T20 tournament in St Kitts. The Knight Riders finished fourth in the six-team table and will play the Zouks who finished ahead of them in third spot.
The first play-off however takes place tomorrow, when the Jamaica Tallawahs battle the Guyana Amazon Warriors. The winner of this match will go straight to the finals, while the loser will play the winner of play off two on Friday also in St Kitts.
Tallawahs finished second to the Amazon Warriors after they were defeated for the second time by the Zouks on Sunday night at Broward in Fort Lauderdale.
Batting, first the Zouks led by half centuries from Johnson Charles and Andre Fletcher made 194 for three in their 20 overs. The Tallawahs lost the dangerous Chris for a 15-ball 30, and although other batsmen got starts, they fell short at 177/6—losing by 17 runs.
As batsmen looked to push on the Zouks kept on striking, and this crippled the run chase. Earlier, Tallawahs won the toss and asked the Zouks to take first strike. Charles and Fletcher, the two ball beaters, one from the Helen of the West Indies and the other from the Spice Isle ran out.
Soon white balls were flying all around the park and fans were running all over the place trying to try to win US$1000 prizes that came with one handed spectators’ catches.
Johnson took the lead as is usually the case and slammed the Jamaican bowlers all around the park. The two attacked nearly every ball sent in their direction. They had rustled up 104 runs by the 12th over, when Jamaica finally got a reprieve.
Johnson time and time again going down ‘cow corner’, fell for 64 of 35 balls with nine fours and two sixes. This knock took him to the top of the table in terms of runs scored at the 2016 Hero CPL. He finishes the prelims with 410 runs at an average of 45.55 with four half centuries.
When Johnson left, Fletcher took over and the runs continued to flow. The right hander destroyed the Jamaican bowling attack and frequently reached the boundary.
Towards the end he got maximum support from Shane Watson, who scored 42 of 17 balls with five sixes. Against the Tallawahs in the last game he made 43 of 20 balls with five sixes as well. So in two matches on the weekend, he would have scored 85 runs of 37 balls with 10 sixes and a four.
Fletcher’s innings ended at 70, that came in 54 balls with four fours and five sixes. This followed his effort of 74 not out the day before also against the Tallawahs.
