Captain of the Jamaica Tallawahs said his team are rested and ready to go for the playoffs of the 2022 Hero CPL season.
St. Lucia Kings captain Faf Du Plessis hopes his team’s good form with the bat will carry over into their Eliminator against the Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Premier League in Guyana on Tuesday.
The Kings finished third in the league phase of the tournament with nine points from their 10 matches.
Their batting was led by their prolific opening combination of Du Plessis and Johnson Charles.
Charles, who was recently recalled to the West Indies squad for the T20 World Cup, finished the league phase as the leading run scorer with 342 runs from eight matches including four half centuries.
Du Plessis finished fourth on the runs chart with 291 runs in nine matches including three fifties and a magnificent 103 against the Guyana Amazon Warriors
“I think any batting team would say to you that form plays a big role. As a team I feel like, with myself and Johnson Charles up front, there’s some really good form in there. Some of the other guys are looking like they’re hitting the ball better as well so that’s a pleasing sign,” Du Plessis said.
“When guys are in form you want to cash in on that. Our start has basically been a weapon for us so, hopefully, we can get off to a good start again.”
Du Plessis also commented on the conditions of the Guyana pitch, saying “I’m really impressed with how the wicket has been playing. Based on my experience from the past here, it looks like a pretty good cricket wicket so it sets up nicely for what would be quarterfinals and semi-finals in the next two days.”
The Kings and Tallawahs will square off at 6:00pm Jamaica Time (7:00pm ECT) and the winner will advance to Qualifier 2 on Wednesday against the loser of Qualifier 1 between the Barbados Royals and Guyana Amazon Warriors.
Barbados Royals captain Kyle Mayers and his Guyana Amazon Warriors counterpart Shimron Hetmyer both expressed confidence in their respective teams ahead of their clash in Qualifier 1 of the Caribbean Premier League in Guyana on Tuesday.
The Royals and Amazon Warriors finished first and second in the recently concluded league phase and will clash at Providence with the winner booking their spot in the final and the loser getting another chance in Qualifier 2 on Wednesday against the winner of the Eliminator between the St. Lucia Kings and the Jamaica Tallawahs.
The Royals have been in fine form, winning eight out of their ten matches in the league phase.
“Things have been great. Winning eight games out of ten, I think the boys have been playing some good cricket. We’re studying the game, very high-spirited and ready to go for tomorrow,” said Mayers in a pre-match press conference on Monday.
On the other hand, the Amazon Warriors had an abysmal start, winning just one of their first six matches before reeling off four straight wins after returning to Guyana.
“So far it’s been okay. The start wasn’t what we expected as a team but when we got back to Guyana, the guys spirits were much higher than I expected and they were ready to go, especially with the crowds. With the crowds here and knowing the conditions as much as we do, I think the guys are really up for the challenge. It’s just for us to continue,” Hetmyer said.
The Royals have lifted the CPL trophy on two occasions in 2014 and 2019 while the Amazon Warriors have never won it despite reaching five finals, something Hetmyer says is not on his team’s mind heading into the playoffs.
“Mentally, the guys are good. We can’t really think about what happened in the past because a lot of these guys were not here when we made it to the knockout rounds before. We just have to keep taking it one game at a time and focus as hard as we can on the game to come.”
The match will start at 9:00am Jamaican Time (10:00am ECT).
Guyana Amazon Warriors completed the perfect set of home victories in the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with a comprehensive defeat of the table-topping Barbados Royals on Sunday night.
The victory means the two teams will do it all again on Tuesday in the first qualifier.
The Amazon Warriors won the toss and opted to field first, and that proved to be an inspired decision. On a fresh surface, their seamers wreaked havoc taking three wickets inside the PowerPlay to leave the Royals in disarray.
Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals and the 125 the Royals mustered was never likely to be enough on a track that offered good value for positive stroke play.
The Royals were able to take two early wickets of their own when they had their turn to bowl restricting the Amazon Warriors to 18-2 but that was as good as it got.
Shakib Al-Hasan produced a scintillating half-century to put the Amazon Warriors on the cusp of victory and the remaining batters saw the chase home to win the game inside 15 overs.
Earlier Guyana Amazon Warriors had utilised the movement on offer to unleash their cadre of seamers on the Royals. Romario Shepherd, Keemo Paul and Odean Smith all weighed in with wickets to leave the Royals 97-9 and it was only late cameos from Ramon Simmonds and Mujeeb Ur Rahman that enabled the Royals to post 125.
Although the Amazon Warriors lost Chandrapaul Hemraj and Shai Hope in the PowerPlay, Shakib played an enterprising innings to take the drama out of the chase. His knock of 53 came off 30 balls and laid the foundation for the Amazon Warriors to win with five over to spare.
The two sides will now do battle again in the first qualifier on Tuesday to determine who will earn the right to go straight to the Hero CPL final.
Scores: Guyana Amazon Warriors 126-5 (Shakib 53, Gurbaz 22; McCoy 2-22, Mayers 1-20) beat Barbados Royals 125 (Holder 42, Khan 20; Shepherd 3-14, Paul 2-9) by 5 wickets.
Guyana Amazon Warriors made it two from two in their home leg of the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with a thrilling run chase to defeat the Saint Lucia Kings on Thursday night.
The Kings won the toss and opted to bat first, and their captain Faf Du Plessis showed why with a magnificent century to lead the way.
His 103 came off 59 balls to help his side set the highest team total in the Hero CPL this year. An outstanding 194-5 looked like an unshakeable target but the Amazon Warriors had other ideas.
Rahmunullah Gurbaz and Chandrapaul Hemraj got the Amazon Warriors' reply off to a fantastic start reaching 71 runs at the end of the PowerPlay and that enabled the Warriors to always be in the hunt for victory. Despite a flurry of wickets after the PowerPlay, Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer paced the chase superbly and the Warriors were able to get home with four balls to spare.
Earlier the Kings had shown what a good wicket it was, teeing off from ball one to reach 100 runs in 10 overs. Du Plessis was faultless in his stroke play targeting all corners of the ground and brought up his century in the 17th over of the match.
Late runs from Roston Chase helped the Kings set the Warriors 195 to win but if the chase seemed insurmountable the Warriors made light of it in front of a fever-pitch Providence crowd.
Gurbaz set the tone in the PowerPlay blasting 52 off 26 balls and this laid the platform for Hope and Hetmyer to pace the remainder of the chase appropriately. When Hetmyer fell for 36, Hope simply took up the mantle leading the Warriors home with a superb half-century.
His 59 runs came off 30 balls as he made it back-to-back fifties in the Hero CPL and consecutive wins for the Amazon Warriors.
Scores: Guyana Amazon Warriors 195-4 (Hope 59*, Gurbaz 52; Deyal 2-32, Joseph 1-20) beat Saint Lucia Kings 194-5 (Du Plessis 103, Dickwella 36; Al Hasan 2-33, Shepherd 1-19) by 6 wickets.
St Kitts & Nevis Patriots secured a seven-run win over the Trinbago Knight Riders to stay in contention for a 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) play-off spot on Thursday.
St Kitts & Nevis Patriots won the toss and chose to bat in this must-win game, but were restricted early on as the Knight Riders rotated five bowlers across the powerplay. Sherfane Rutherford would change the complexion of the innings with a brilliant 78 runs, aided by a spectacular cameo from Dewald Brevis, to take the Patriots to 163-6.
In their chase, the Trinbago Knight Riders struggled to build partnerships as wickets consistently fell. Despite this, they remained with a chance of winning the match as Tim Seifert and Andre Russell scored crucial late runs, but it proved to be in vain as they could only muster 156-7, losing by seven runs.
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots were frustrated by the bowling of the Knight Riders in the first 10 overs, reaching 43-3 and having lost the key wicket of Evin Lewis. Rutherford would then shoulder the responsibility of carrying the innings as he patiently scored runs before accelerating in the last three overs, to finish on 78 runs. Brevis would remarkably score 30 runs from just six balls, constantly clearing the boundary to propel the Patriots to 163-6.
Trinbago Knight Riders lost the early wickets of Leonardo Julien and Colin Munro in their chase, with spinners Kevin Sinclair and Rashid Khan restricting runs. Kieron Pollard and Nicholas Pooran would then lose their wickets as the Knight Riders found themselves in serious trouble.
Seifert kept the chase alive with a valiant half-century. Despite Russell scoring 18 runs in the 19th over, it was not to be enough as Sheldon Cottrell delivered a composed final over to take the Patriots to victory..
Scores: St Kitts and Nevis Patriots 163-6 (Rutherford 78, Brevis 30*; Dupavillon 3-38, Patel 1-7) beat Trinbago Knight Riders 156-7 (Seifert 59, Pollard 31; Cottrell 3-33, Sinclair 2-18) by seven runs.
Guyana Amazon Warriors got off to a winning start on their home leg of the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with a thrilling victory over the Jamaica Tallawahs on Wednesday night.
The Tallawahs won the toss and opted to field first and but for the final three overs of the Amazon Warriors innings that seemed like an inspired decision.
Restricting the Amazon Warriors to 104-7 after 17 overs the Tallawahs looked in full control but Odean Smith and Keemo Paul added 74 from 27 balls to guide the Amazon Warriors to a magnificent 178-8.
The total looked beyond the Tallawahs but Brandon King led a lone charge with the first Hero CPL century of the tournament. Taking the chase down to the final over, King was dismissed with three balls to go and with that victory slipped out of The Tallawahs' reach.
Earlier the Tallawahs had taken control of the match with their cadre of spinners tying the Amazon Warriors in knots.
Other than Shai Hope who hit a sparkling 60 from 45 balls no other batter was able to get to grips with the conditions and when Gudakesh Motie fell in the 16th over to leave the Amazon Warriors 98-7 it felt like Jamaica’s game to lose.
That was until Smith and Paul produced a quite remarkable display of power hitting to blast the Amazon Warriors to an improbable total. 74 runs were plundered off the final three overs to set the Tallawahs an unlikely 179 to win.
If 179 was unlikely, Brandon King clearly did not read the script. His one-man mission to chase down the total nearly pulled off an unlikely heist. Hitting shots all over the ground King reached an unbeaten 80 from 55 balls when the rain came down to interrupt the match.
When play resumed King marched serenely to his century but he could not see the chase home falling with three balls to spare and with that the Tallawahs' hopes were extinguished.
Scores: Guyana Amazon Warriors 178-8 (Hope 60, Smith 42; Nabi 3-12, Green 2-24) beat Jamaica Tallawahs 166 (King 104, Mckenzie 15; Tahir 2-17, Smith 2-26) by 12 runs.
Former West Indies opener Philo Wallace described the feeling of watching the West Indies batsmen struggle against spin bowling as “disheartening.”
“It’s very disheartening to see our batsmen continue to struggle against spin,” said Wallace on the Mason & Guest radio show in Barbados on Tuesday.
The West Indies suffered an embarrassing 0-3 series defeat against Bangladesh last week at Providence in Guyana, a surface known to favor spin bowling.
“They have to find a method of how to play slow bowling. I find it very uncomfortable that our batsmen don’t seem to understand how to play on that type of surface,” said Wallace, who played seven Tests and 33 ODIs from 1997-2000.
The inability to play spin meant that the hosts were unable to bat out the full 50 overs in any of the matches, something Wallace said is not acceptable.
“You can’t consistently get bowled out inside 50 overs. When you find yourself three or four wickets down inside the first 20 overs, you’re going to struggle. They’re not getting the starts from the openers. The middle order is struggling and leaving it to some sluggers at the bottom,” he said.
When questioned about a solution to the problem, Wallace pointed to something that has been an issue for the West Indies in limited overs cricket for more than a decade, rotation of the strike.
“You have to be fit and you’ve got to work around the ball and know your partner at the other end. When you get your ones and twos up front, it will make it easier for the guys at the back end,” Wallace said.
He further emphasized his point by highlighting an innings played by South African Rassie van der Dussen against England on Tuesday where he scored 134 off 117 balls hitting only 10 fours and no sixes. South Africa hit no sixes in their innings and were able to score 333-5 from their 50 overs before bowling England out for 271.
Bangladesh condemned the West Indies to a second consecutive defeat, this time by nine wickets, to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in their three-match ODI series at Providence in Guyana on Wednesday.
An unbeaten 86 from opener Teague Wyllie propelled Australia Under-19s to a comfortable six-wicket win over West Indies Under-19s in the opening game of the ICC Men’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup at Providence today.
Australia’s opening pair of Wyllie and Corey Miller marched to the crease in pursuit of their target of 170.
Opening bowlers Johann Layne and Shiva Sankar started the innings with tight bowling and the pressure paid off when Layne removed Miller for a duck to leave the Aussies 5-1 in the third over.
Sankar then got in on the action by removing number three Isaac Higgins for nine to leave the Australians 21-2 off 7.5 overs.
After 11 overs, Australia was 45-2 with Wyllie (17) and captain Cooper Connolly (12) at the crease.
After Connolly and Willey put together a solid partnership, it was broken by Onaje Amory in the 18th over when he removed Connolly for 23 to leave the Australians 74-3.
Australia after 20 overs were 77-3 with Wyllie on 36 and Nivethan Radhakrishnan on two.
Looking extremely comfortable at the crease, Wyllie (46) and Radhakrishnan (12) carried the Australian total past 100.
Soon after, Willey brought up his fifty, off 83 balls, in the 30th over.
Australia lost their fourth wicket when Radhakrishnan was dismissed in the 39th over by Matthew Nandu for 31 to leave the score at 139-4.
After 40 overs, Australia were 154-4 with Wyllie still batting on 79 and Campbell Kellaway on one.
The Aussies eventually got to 170-4 off 44.5 overs to register the six-wicket win.
Wyllie was voted man of the match.
Earlier, West Indies Under-19s were restricted to 169 all out in 40.1 overs, with captain Ackeem Auguste getting 57 and Rivaldo Clarke contributing 37 against three-wicket hauls from Tom Whitney (3-20 from 8.1 overs), Nivethan Radhakrishnan (3-48 from 10 overs) and captain Cooper Connolly (3-17 from 7 overs).
In the other Group D match today, Sri Lanka Under 19s (218 all out from 50 overs) beat Scotland Under-19s (178 all out from 48.4 overs) by 40 runs.
Both West Indies U-19s and Australia U-19s next games will be on Monday, January 17 against Scotland Under-19s and Sri Lanka Under-19s, respectively.
West Indies Under-19s were reduced to 169 all out off 40.1 overs, after winning the toss and choosing to bat first, in their opening ICC Men’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup game against Australia Under-19s at Providence today.
Their innings got off to the worst possible start as opener Matthew Nandu was dismissed with the second ball of the innings by Tom Whitney to leave them 1-1.
The second wicket fell soon after as Whitney removed West Indies U-19s number three batsman Teddy Bishop for five, in the fifth over, to leave the score at 12-2.
Opener Shaqkere Parris became the third man to go in the very next over after being dismissed by William Salzmann for four to leave the young Windies 12-3.
Captain Ackeem Auguste (14) and Rivaldo Clarke (8) ensured that West Indies U19s lost no further wickets in the first 10 overs, carrying the score to 38-3.
Auguste and Clarke continued to look assured as they brought up 50 for the West Indies U19s after 13 overs.
After 20 overs, West Indies U-19s were 99-3 thanks to more quality batting from Auguste (46) and Clarke (37).
Auguste brought up two milestones with one shot in the 21st over, bringing up a classy 50 off 54 balls and the West Indies 100.
Australia U-19s got a much-needed breakthrough when Clarke went off the bowling of Nivethan Radhakrishnan for 37 to leave the score at 107-4 after 21.5 overs.
Giovonte Depeiza joined Auguste at the crease but didn’t last long, being dismissed by Australian captain Cooper Connolly for a duck to leave the young Windies 109-5 off 23 overs.
Connolly got his second wicket at the start of the 25th over, removing Auguste for a quality 56 to leave the score 112-6.
Radhakrishnan dismissed Anderson Mahase for six in the 28th over to take his second wicket and continue Australia’s stranglehold on the West Indies U19 batting line-up to leave them on 124-7.
After 30 overs, West Indies Under-19s were 131-7 with Johann Layne on 12 and McKenny Clarke on two.
Layne became Radhakrishnan’s third wicket in the 32nd over for 12 to leave the score at 131-8.
Connolly took his third wicket and Australia’s ninth when he removed Shiva Sankar for seven to leave West Indies U-19s 145-9.
Three McKenny Clarke sixes in the 38th over brought the score past 150.
After 40 overs, the West Indies U19s were 168-9 with McKenny Clarke on 29 and Onaje Amory on zero.
The innings was finally ended when McKenny Clarke was dismissed by Tom Whitney in the 41st over for 29.
Tom Whitney was the pick of the Australian bowlers with 3-20 off 8.1 overs and Nivethan Radhakrishnan supported him well with 3-48 off 10 overs.
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