Asif Ali finished the game in style as the Jamaica Tallawahs middle-order recovered from a top-order collapse to make light work of a tricky target against the St Lucia Zouks in their opening game of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2020.
In other games of the day, Guyana Amazon Warriors defeated St Kitts and Nevis Patriots by three wickets at the Brian Lara Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.
Against Tallawahs, Darren Sammy-led Zouks posted 158/7 in their stipulated 20 overs, riding on a 42-ball 52-run knock from Roston Chase. His innings included four 4s and two 6s.
The Tallawahs struggled early during their chase, losing two wickets for just 13 inside the first five overs. However, Glenn Phillips and captain Rovman Powell then steadied the ship and took their team to 78/3 at the drinks break. The game was in the balance as Tallawahs needed a further 83.
But Ali (47*) took off from their own and along with Andre Russell (16) and Carlos Brathwaite (18* off 9), took his team across the line with seven balls to spare.
In the second match of the day, Warriors restricted Patriots to just 127/8 in their allotted 20 overs. Only Lewis (30) and Ben Dunk (29) made some noticeable contributions as other batters from their team struggled against some tight bowling from Warriors.
During the chase, Chris Green-led Warriors also didn’t find it easy and lost seven wickets to chase down the total with three overs to spare. For them, Shimron Hetmyer scored 71 runs off just 44 balls with the help of eight 4s and three 6s.
Brief Scores: Jamaica Tallawahs 160/5 (Asif Ali 47*; Kesrick Williams 2/32) beat St Lucia Zouks 158/7 (Roston Chase 52; Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman 2/25) by five wickets.
Brief Scores: Guyana Amazon Warriors 131/7 (Shimron Hetmyer 71; Rayad Emrite 3/31) defeat St Kitts and Nevis Patriots 127/8 (Evin Lewis 30; Keemo Paul 4/19) by three wickets.
