Zouks win on D/L to stay alive

Windiescricket.com

North Sound, Antigua—Friday 16th August 2013– Persistent rainfall handed the St Lucia Zouks a 17-run victory over the Antigua Hawksbills, ultimately keeping their Limacol Caribbean Premier League campaign alive.

Had the last ten overs of the match been played out though, the Zouks looked firm favourites to record a victory.

The night started out with the visitors needing nothing short of a win to stay alive. They did themselves a big favour by posting the highest score of the tournament, getting to 179/4 from their 20 overs. The Zouks’ main contributor was Andre Fletcher, who struck 76 runs from 53 balls.

The Zouks then proceeded to put the Hawkbills on the back foot early on with the ball. It didn’t look like that after Johnson Charles pummelled Garey Mathurin for three consecutive boundaries in the first over. But then Mathurin struck back with his wicket the next ball.

Again Charles had been a victim of over aggression. Two overs later and Mathurin would remove fellow opener, Kieran Powell. Bizarrely, Mathurin had been struck for two boundaries before Powell offered up a simple catch back to him. The dismissal echoed that of Charles’. The Hawkbills were off to a flier, scoring 30 runs in less than three overs, but had lost both their openers.

Hawksbills captain, Marlon Samuels, came together with wicket-keeper Jahmar Hamilton and both batsmen repaired the early damage while also keeping the scoreboard ticking. Hamilton played some good shots, though he did have patches of luck through inside-edges that just missed the stumps.

Together with Samuels, they took the Hawksbills to the halfway stage on 74/2. The game was nicely poised, but still the Zouks had their noses in front.

The Hawksbills needed 106 runs from the last ten overs. That’s when Mother Nature decided to intervene. A light drizzle quickly turned into a heavy downpour that would see the players off the field for just over 30 minutes.

The Hawksbills then, were 11 runs off the Duckworth/Lewis. On the resumption, Tino Best bowled Hamilton with a yorker after four deliveries. And as Hamilton left the field, the rains came back. That would effectively end the game.

The Zouks had secured victory by the cut-off time of 12:10am by 17 runs on Duckworth/Lewis.

Summarized scores: St.Lucia Zouks 179 for 4 in 20 overs: Andre Fletcher 76; Darren Sammy 35*

Garey Mathurin 2 wickets; tino Best 1

Sammy picked up both the Limacol Super Six award for smashing a 96-metre blow while also picking up the Digicel 4G Fastest Scorer Award. For his 76 runs, Andre Fletcher was named Man of the Match

St Lucia Zouks won by 17 runs on D/L

Umpires: Billy Bowden (New Zealand) & Carl Tuckett (Leeward Islands)

Meanwhile, Christopher Barnwell came up trumps with a superb last over to help the Guyana Amazon Warriors defeat the Jamaica Tallawahs by five runs in match also played on Thursday 15th August

Summarized scores: Guyana Amazon Warriors: 139-6 (20 overs). James Franklin 40, Martin Guptill 39, Lendl Simmons 30. Vernon Philander 2-23.

Jamaica Tallawahs: 134-8 (20 overs) Chris Gayle 43, Chadwick Walton 36, Jacques Rudolph 18, Andre Russell 14.

Christopher Barnwell 2-4, Krishmar Santokie 2-33

Points table
Tridents—6 matches-4 wins-2 losses -8 points
Amazon- 6 matches-4 wins-2 losses- 8 points
Tallawahs—5 matches-3 wins-3 losses-6 points
Hawksbills—5 matches-2 wins-3 losses- 4 points
Red Steel- 5 matches-2 wins-3 losses-4 points
Zouks-5 matches-1 win-4 losses-2 points

Matches scheduled for Saturday 17th August

St Lucia Zouks Vs T&T Red Steel
Venue: Sabina Park–10 am

Jamaica Tallawahs Vs Barbados Tridents
Venue: Sabina Park–2 pm

Antigua Hawksbills Vs Guyana Amazon Warriors
Venue: Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground–8 pm

Carl Tuckett will be one of the on filed umpires in this game