Vin­ode Mam­chan

Al­ways the brides­maid and nev­er the bride may be play­ing in the minds of the Guyana Ama­zon War­riors play­ers, af­ter they lost their third fi­nals in the four-year his­to­ry of the Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL), giv­ing the Ja­maica Tallawahs their sec­ond ti­tle.

A dis­mal bat­ting per­for­mance ren­dered the much an­tic­i­pat­ed clash a farce at the Warn­er Park, as mid­day through the match, the fans knew it was just a mat­ter of time be­fore Chris Gayle life his sec­ond tro­phy.

A com­bi­na­tion of poor shots and dis­ci­plined bowl­ing led to War­riors falling for just 93 runs from 16.1 overs bat­ting first.

Gayle then struck a 27-ball half cen­tu­ry and Chad­wick Wal­ton 25 not out, to take the Tallawahs to 95 for one of 12.5 overs. Chas­ing the small score, Gayle and Wal­ton took their time ini­tial­ly but for­mer soon de­cid­ed that it was time to ex­cite the 8,000 fans with big shots. He lift­ed the ball six times in­to the crowd in get­ting 54 and by the time he was dis­missed the re­quired rate was just over a run an over. Wal­ton and Sri Lankan im­port Ku­mar San­gakkara du­ly com­plet­ed the nine-wick­et vic­to­ry –to give the Tallawahs their sec­ond ti­tle, af­ter tak­ing the ini­tial crown in 2012.

Ear­li­er, the Ja­maicans won the toss and asked War­riors to take first strike. They lost Aus­tralian Nic Mad­di­son for a 'duck' and his dis­missal led to a pro­ces­sion of bats­men to and from then dugout. All rounder So­hail Tan­vir who has been a stand­out play­er for War­riors through­out the tour­na­ment was sent out ear­ly and he bat­ted well in get­ting 41 but wick­ets fell con­tin­u­ous­ly around him. He end­ed up get­ting a top score of 42 of 37 balls with six fours.

Apart from him on­ly two oth­er bats­men got in­to dou­ble fig­ures Dwayne Smith 17 and Chris Barn­well 10. The pick of the bowlers for the Ja­maicans were Imad Wasim 3/21, Kesrick Williams 2/12 and Shak­ib Al Hasan 2/25.

SCORE­BOARD

Tallawahs vs War­riors

War­riors in­nings

D Smith c Pow­ell b Thomas 17

N Mad­di­son c San­gakkara b Rus­sell 0

C Lynn c Foo b Al Hasan 7

S Tan­vir c Foo b Williams 42

J Mo­hammed lbw Al Hasan 0

C Barn­well c Gayle b Wasim 10

A Bram­ble b Wasim 0

R Em­rit st San­gakkara b Wasim 0

S Ja­cobs b Williams 7

V Per­maul not out 0

A Zam­pa run out 2

Ex­tras

To­tal all out (16.1ovs) 93

Fall of wk­ts: 1, 9, 50, 53, 70, 70, 83, 91, 93.

Bowl­ing: A Rus­sell 2.5-0-5-1, I Wasim 4-0-21-3, S Al Hasan 4-0-25-2, K Williams 2-0-12-2, O Thomas 4-0-28-1.

Tallawahs in­nings

C Gayle c Ja­cobs b Em­rit 54

C Wal­ton not out 25

K San­gakkara not out 12

Ex­tras 3w, 1nb 4

To­tal for 1 wkt (12.5ovs) 95

Fall of wk­ts: 79.

Bowl­ing: S Tan­vir 4-0-17-0, S Ja­cobs 3-0-33-0, A Zam­pa 1-0-18-0, R Em­rit 3-0-13-1, V Per­maul 1.5-0-14-0.

Re­sult: Ja­maica Tallawahs won by 9 wk­ts to be crowned 2016 Hero CPL cham­pi­ons.