Cornwall, Williams knock Tallawahs out of playoff race

Cornwall, Williams knock Tallawahs out of playoff race







Cornwall reached fifty with his fifth six of the innings 

Jamaica Tallawahs, for the first time in CPL history, have failed to qualify for the playoff stages of the tournament after suffering another loss, this time at the hands of St Lucia Zouks. Having already lost six games in the tournament prior to Friday's encounter, Tallawahs' slim hopes were squashed with Kesrick Williams and Rahkeem Cornwall leading the charge for the Zouks.

Opting to bowl first, Zouks Chris Gayle and Glenn Phillips began in fine fashion guiding Tallawahs to 40 in the first four overs before Hardus Viljoen ended the stand. Phillips, who had raced to 23 off just 10 balls, attempted an upper cut but only managed an outside edge to the keeper. Dwayne Smith then picked up from where Phillips left as he smashed his second ball for a six as Tallawahs ended the powerplay on a high note.

After the initial onslaught, Zouks managed to tie down Gayle at one end even though Smith continued to pick up regular boundaries. The pressure finally got to the left-hander as he found the man at long-on to depart for an uncharacteristic 30-ball 29. From thereon, the home side applied the pressure by picking up regular wickets even though they also gave Smith a couple of reprieves. While he managed to make the most out of it by scoring a half-century, Williams inflicted damage at the end to keep Tallawahs to 165.

The ploy to open with spin against Cornwall didn't work as he fetched 13 runs in the very first over of the chase. Having registered four single-digit scores in his last five games, a determined Cornwall went on a rampage and found an able partner in Andre Fletcher at the other end. Together, the openers took 25 runs off a Jerome Taylor over to race to just 44 in the first three overs.

Zahir Khan's wrong one then consumed Fletcher but the boundaries kept flowing. Cornwall reached fifty with his fifth six of the innings and mistimed one off the very next ball to depart. But by then, the damage was done as Zouks only needed another 87 off 78 balls. Colin de Grandhomme then fell first ball to Imran Khan but the promotion of Viljoen helped Zouks's cause as he took on the legspinner to fetch a couple of sixes and a four to put the chase right back on track.

Tallawahs did strike late with the wickets of Colin Ingram, Viljoen and Christopher Barnwell, but the onslaught early in the innings meant that Daren Sammy and Krishmar Santokie had only little to do to polish off the chase.

Brief scores: Jamaica Tallawahs 165/7 in 20 overs (Dwayne Smith 58; Kesrick Williams 3-24, Krishmar Santokie 2-31) lost to St Lucia Zouks 169/6 in 19.1 overs (Rahkeem Cornwall 51, Hardus Viljoen 32; Imran Khan 2-34) by four wickets.