In a surprise move, Andre Russell, captain of the Tallawahs, chose to bat in St Lucia and it immediately looked like a good decision with his side posting a challenging 204-5 before restricting the Stars to 183-8.

Rovman Powell, 64, was the man of the moment for the Tallawahs, scoring his first T20 half century to lead the Jamaican franchise’s charge.

In truth, there were good innings right throughout the Tallawahs innings as Glen Phillips scored 17 from eight before being drawn into a false shot from Kesrick Williams, while Johnson Charles was powerful in his innings of 34 from 24 deliveries.

Kenar Lewis, batting at number three found scoring freely a little tricky but he did get to 33 from 34 balls before he eventually went.

Lewis’ innings was, in fact, unwittingly the perfect foil for Powell, who batting at number fou, got to his 64 from just 37 deliveries.

Andre Russell had another failure with the bat, going caught at a very, very straight mid off by Darren Sammy off the bowling of Williams.

Williams would end with figures of 3-34, but not before the 13-ball carnage that would come from the bat of David Miller.

Miller raced to 32 from 13 balls, striking three sixes and two fours which took the Tallawahs past the psychological 200-run barrier.

The Stars reply started brightly, as opener Mark Champman drove Oshane Thomas square of the wicket quite beautifully on the first ball of the day.

However, when he went to do it again, a diving Adam Zampa had him caught on the third-man boundary in spectacular fashion.

Andre Fletcher, who has been in exquisite form for the Stars played a few sublime shots as he tried to push his strike rate to keep up with the massive total but just as he was getting into his stride, Powell had him caught with the very first ball of his spell for 21.

Before that, Rahkeem Cornwall had fallen victim to Imad Wasim and another brilliant catch, this time by Andre Russell at mid off.

David Warner and Kieron Pollard came to together and had a massive task in front of them.

The two looked like getting somewhere, as Warner, after a streaky start, began to middle the ball and struck some wonderful boundaries, including a straight six off Zampa that challenged for the shot of the day.

But when Warner, having taken 13 from Zampa’s over already, went across the line, with his tally on 42, Johnson Charles’ diving effort at short fine leg, dented the Stars run chase.

Pollard continued to strike the ball beautifully, never looking in any real trouble, while Lendl Simmons ran singles to get himself into something like form.

Pollard struck Russell for a six over his head before lifting a delivery over cover for a handsome-looking four to get to 46 from 27 deliveries. Then disaster.

Russell struck back, bowling Pollard with a yorker that had a little shape away and a lot of pace.

The game should have been over at 156-5 in the 17^th over but Simmons had begun to cut loose and made the Stars fans dream.

Simmons raced to 45 from 26 deliveries but it wasn’t enough after Russell had Darren Sammy caught and bowled, and Thomas pushed one past Qais Ahmad’s edge.

Thomas ended with 2-27 from three overs, while Russell had 2-15 from his three.

Powell came in for a little bit of stick but his 1-42 was important. Zampa was also expensive, three overs going for 39 but his one wicket was timely.

The Tallawahs, after seven games, are now back at the top of the CPL table with eight points, while the Stars, who have played eight, are at the foot of the table with four.

The Barbados Tridents also have four points but they have only played four games.

The St Kitts and Nevis Patriots have six points from five games but are second ahead of the Trinbago Knight Riders, who have the same number of points from the same number of games but a lower net run rate.

Just below that are the Guyana Amazon Warriors who also have an identical point tally from five games but have the worst net run rate of the three.