PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Reigning Caribbean Premier League champions Jamaica Tallawahs won their second on the trot when they beat Trinbago Knight Riders by four wickets here Wednesday night.a
Chasing 148 at Queen’s Park Oval, the Tallawahs got home with four balls remaining to notch their second win in four days, following their opening loss to Barbados Tridents in Florida last weekend.
Tallawahs were guided by Sri Lankan star and captain Kumar Sangakkara who top-scored with 47 while opening partner Lendl Simmons struck 38.
Champion off-spinner Sunil Narine (2-21) and seamer Kevon Cooper (2-25) grabbed two wickets apiece.
New Zealander Colin Munro had earlier top-scored with 41, as TKR, sent in, were dismissed for 147 with a ball to spare.
Left-hander Darren Bravo punched 33 while opener Narine blasted 23, but seamers Odean Smith (3-20) and Kesrick Williams (2-36) snatched three wickets apiece to retard TKR’s progress.
In fact, the hosts were cruising at 109 for two in the 10th over before suffering a dramatic collapse, losing their last eight wickets for a mere 38 runs.
Narine had given the innings an energetic start, smacking a pair of fours and sixes in an 11-ball cameo, adding 33 for the first wicket with New Zealander Brendon McCullum (16).
When Narine perished in the fifth over caught at mid-wicket by Simmons off Man-of-the-Match Williams, Munro and Bravo put TKR on top with a 57-run third wicket stand. Munro struck five fours and two sixes off 25 balls while Bravo also faced 25 deliveries and counted two fours and two sixes. Once Munro holed out in the deep at the end of the 10th, however, the innings slumped into terminal decline. Tallawahs’ run chase was given an immediate boost when Sangakkara and Simmons put on 61 off 33 balls for the first wicket.While the lef handed Sangakkara was measured in his 41-ball knock which included seven fours, Simmons played with abandon, carving out four fours and three sixes off just 18 balls. Simmons was one of three wickets to fall for 32 runs in the space of 30 balls when he was bowled by Pakistan leg-spinner Shadab Khan in the sixth over but Tallawahs kept their focus to get home in the final over.