Pollard left frustrated as Stars slip to massive loss
Tue, Aug 21, '18
Kieron Pollard's frustration came to the fore as St. Lucia Stars slipped to their fifth loss in six games in CPL 2018 on Tuesday (August 21). Pollard's men were shot down for just 69 in 12. overs after Sheldon Cottrell, Mahmudullah and Sandeep Lamichhane collaborated to share seven wickets between them. The chase, a mere formality after the horror show in the first innings lasted just 7.4 overs saw Devon Thomas guide St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots to a seven-wicket win.
Put in, Stars lost Andre Fletcher in the very first over of the game and never really recovered from that. Rahkeem Cornwall, Lendl Simmons and Pollard failed to get going as Stars soon slipped to 24 for 4. Darren Sammy bagged a three-ball duck while Qais Ahmed top scored with an 18-ball 24. Just two batsmen got into double digits as Stars suffered another demoralising loss after ending their 15-match losing streak with a big win. It was also the shortest innings in CPL history.
While Cottrell landed the first blow, it was Lamichhane and Mahmudullah who landed the crucial dents early on. The left-arm pacer ended with figures of 2.3-0.14-3 while the spinners bagged two wickets apiece.
"From the start, everything went wrong today. I was telling the guys that in every match we start at 0-0. None of the senior players decided to bat a couple of overs and see if we can get a fighting total of 120 runs. That was the most disappointing part," the frustrated Stars captain Pollard said after the game.
"I stressed about winning the first game. We wanted to get that monkey off our bag but it is not only about one victory. I stressed about complacency in the dressing room too. We should have capitalised on the momentum."
5:00 P.M. Cross Roads, Kingston Jamaica: the work-day ends and traffic is dense. Like ants at a whiff of rain air, the locals are on the move–all roads leading to Sabina Park. “One Subina! $1.50,” goes the perpetual roaring Jamaican accents of taxi drivers. Even the lions are jealous.
Tongues are wetted with a taste of the demography as Sabina’s entrance trickles into view–all walks of life. Familiar faces from the living room are drawn into focus. The mind envisages the possible companies and offices accountable for the innumerable dress trousers/ skirts paired with dress shirts. Colours run wild; of skin, cloth and language.
As the love-making of steel pans and mallets encourages the sway of professional hips, the atmosphere builds. Though security checks emulate gravity and the use of Guardian Group volunteers form blankets, breaking the fall of patrons once carried away by the vibrant aura.
Buzzzz goes the latest addition to Jamaica’s culture, adopted from South Africa 2008; undoubtedly the distinguishing feature (over live broadcasts) from other home grounds in CPL. Shattering the vuvuzela: “Ahh,” the fans are disappointed. A Tallawahs supporter enters subsequent to McCarthy putting Fletcher down off Thomas and inquires at the groans: “A drop him drop him?” At the responses he returns: “Turn unu want me turn back?”
At Russell’s indication of his run-up length, another patron sounds out: “A 200 you wah come give we fi chase tonight; we good wid 160!” True to the alias, CPL-The biggest party in sport –Tallawahs fans cheers of 6s and 4s are rivaled by their communication with the selector between overs. No more so than when Koshens’ ‘Do Sumn (We Nuh ‘Fraid A Nobody)’ was aimed at the Jamaican-born and former Tallawahs Captain–Chris Gayle.
Should one have peeked into the patrons thoughts as they existed the venue, surely something along the lines of “We deserve at least one more” would have been seen. Like Kryptonite to travelling CPL teams, the fear of the intimidating Sabina Park faithful is there to be harvested. The owners of the Tallawahs, assuming they rather a successful franchise, will do well to remember that. After all, we are the Jamaica Tallawahs.
Munro, Bravo brothers snuff out Tallawahs challenge
Mon, Aug 20, '18
Lauderhill continued to be a House of Horrors for Jamaica Tallawahs for the second straight night as Colin Munro teamed up with both Bravos in a pair of major stands to lift Trinbago Knight Riders to a last-ball four-wicket win at the Central Broward Regional Park. It's the fifth loss in six matches at the venue for the Tallawahs since 2016.
Tallawahs gave themselves a chance thanks to a 112-run stand between Glenn Phillipsand David Miller to resuscitate the first innings after they were floundering midway through at 58 for 3. Half-centuries from both batsmen helped Tallawahs add 124 off the final 10 overs.
But it still wasn't enough as Munro and Darren Bravo responded in kind with a century partnership and matching half-centuries. With three needed to win off the final ball, Javon Searles walloped a length ball from Oshane Thomas over extra cover with enough meat in it to beat Kennar Lewis sweeping on the boundary for the winning runs.
An All-American reunion
Having won the toss, Knight Riders opened the bowling with Ohio fast bowler Ali Khan, one of the finds of the season, with Sameer Bandekar, who stood in his lone ODI as an Indian umpire in 2002 before migrating to Dallas, Texas in 2010, officiating. After Kennar Lewis fell in the second over to Khary Pierre, Florida batsman Steven Taylor, playing his first match of the season for Tallawahs at No. 3, arrived in the middle.
Shimron Hetmyer became the youngest centurion in CPL history, and the first to do it on American soil, as Guyana Amazon Warriors rallied to victory by 71 runs to hand Jamaica Tallawahs their first loss of CPL 2018.
On paper, the game was listed as a home match for the Tallawahs, but Lauderhill has provided anything but a home-field advantage for Andre Russell's team, who had just one win in four matches coming into the venue on Saturday night. A heavily partisan Amazon Warriors crowd of about 4,000 provided a hostile reception to the Tallawahs and fueled the visitors to 209 for 7, the highest CPL total made at the venue, eclipsing the 206 made by St Lucia Zouks against the Tallawahs in the very first CPL match played in Lauderhill in 2016.
Hetmyer floors the hosts
When the Amazon Warriors last visited Lauderhill a little over a year ago, Hetmyer sat on the bench during two defeats to St Kitts & Nevis Patriots, in matches where the Warriors were only able to muster totals of 123 and 128. The 21-year old Hetmyer nearly outdid that singlehandedly on Saturday night in front of a raucous crowd.
Hetmyer came to the crease in the second over, after Chadwick Walton had been adjudged lbw to Samuel Badree, and wasted little time in getting his eye in under the Lauderhill lights. The closest shave he had was on his first boundary of the night, in the third over off Imad Wasim, as a slightly aerial drive eluded the fielder in the covers before heading to the rope. The next ball took a less adventurous path through the covers for another four, and Hetmyer was on his way as he struck 11 fours and five sixes in all.
Pollard's maiden ton ends St Lucia Stars' 15-game losing streak
Sat, Aug 18, '18
July 31, 2016. That was the last time St Lucia's CPL franchise last won a match. But their two-year streak of futility is no more after Kieron Pollard's maiden T20 century propelled the Stars to a CPL record total of 226 to help break a 15-match winless streak in a 38-run win over Barbados Tridents.
After blowing a golden chance at breaking the CPL's longest streak of futility 24 hours earlier, Obed McCoy's brilliant spell of slower balls denied a late charge by the Tridents to help clinch St Lucia's first win since a 17-run win in Florida when Barack Obama was president of the USA and the franchise was still known as the Zouks.
Five numbers from St Lucia Stars' win 15 - The losing streak broken by the St Lucia franchise
427 - The number of T20 matches it took for Pollard's maiden ton
226 - The CPL's highest total of all time
17 - Second-most number of sixes in a CPL innings
6 - The number of cricketers to score a CPL century
Fiery Fletcher
The second-highest scorer in CPL history gave the Stars another terrific start in the Powerplay, and this time one they would not waste. Andre Fletcher tore into Mohammad Irfan in the opening over of the match after Stars were sent in at the toss. Fletcher clattered two sixes over the leg side followed by fours through mid-on and point in a 20-run opening over. David Warner tried to copy Fletcher's lead in the second but nicked off his second ball against Jason Holder. It was one of the few miscues on the night for the Stars though.
Rahkeem Cornwall excelled once again as a pinch-hitter at No. 3, smoking 30 off 11 balls over the next three overs before he was bounced out by Wahab Riaz. Lendl Simmons copped a rough lbw decision from Langton Rusere next ball on a delivery pitching outside leg to put Wahab on a hat-trick. It was the last moment of joy for the Tridents for the next hour as Fletcher and Pollard combined for a 148-run stand.
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