CPL REVIEW: Guyana defend lowest CPL score as Andre Russell is left with too much to do

The Cricketer takes a look at some of the standout themes from Saturday's action in the Caribbean Premier League at the Brian Lara Academy in Trinidad...

Streetwise Guyana highlight flaws in one-dimensional Tallawahs

It takes a special effort to pull off what Guyana Amazon Warriors achieved on Saturday: the lowest score ever successfully defended in the Caribbean Premier League.

Once Chris Green’s side had collapsed from 56 without loss in the sixth over to 118 all out – losing ten wickets for just 62 runs, Rovman Powell’s Jamaica Tallawahs could have been forgiven for believing they had done most of the hard work at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy.

There were three wickets each for Carlos Brathwaite and Mujeeb Ur Rahman, while Sandeep Lamichhane’s four overs cost just eight runs.

Barring a single over from Oshane Thomas that was plundered for 24, there was little more that Jamaica could have done in the first half of proceedings.

What followed, however, proved the long-held views of many observers about where their downfall might sit as a side.

In his competition preview for The Cricketer, Jarrod Kimber alluded to the Tallawahs’ six-hitting power. And while it will make for extraordinary entertainment when it comes off, days like this exist as a potential pitfall.

They are one-dimensional: full of brute strength but without the capacity to nudge and nurdle when the situation demands something more subtle. And on this occasion, it played directly into the hands of a bowling attack made for batting like this.

^{St Lucia Zouks won comfortably against St Kitts & Nevis Patriots}

Nineteen balls into what looked a routine chase, it was already anything but; Jamaica found themselves 4 for 3 after 3.1 overs.

What followed was, in the context of T20 cricket worldwide, extraordinary. There were 80 dot-balls out of 120 legal deliveries as Jamaica’s middle order was left bereft of ideas and unable to rotate the strike.

When Asif Ali fell for 14 from 20 balls, they were 34 for 4 after 9.3 overs. Carlos Brathwaite, still curiously coming to the crease ahead of Andre Russell, patted back five off 14 balls in another struggle for the allrounder.

Ashmead Nedd, a star of West Indies’ Under-19 World Cup campaign, recorded figures on debut of 1 for 10 from his four overs, including one of three maidens – Green and Imran Tahir bowled the others.

Between Nedd, Tahir and Green, their 11 overs went for just 46 runs. And so, it was left to Russell to pick up the pieces – the world, once more, on the shoulders of one of T20’s finest-ever players.

And while he hauled himself to an unbeaten 52, dragging his side from 59 for 7, his contribution was too little too late. He hit nine of his side’s 14 boundaries. In a 48-run stand with Fidel Edwards, the tailender faced just one ball.

But even so, they fell 14 runs short – a victory for Guyana’s clarity of thought. A defeat, likewise, at the door of a Jamaican strategy still lacking in nuance.

^{Andre Russell was left with too much to do}

Gung-ho Zouks finding a formula

In truth, a ten-run margin didn’t tell the full story as St Lucia Zouks beat St Kitts & Nevis Patriots to record their second win of this year’s Caribbean Premier League.

It was more one-sided than that, with the losers indebted to the late hitting of Sheldon Cottrell to drag them to what might have looked to the naked eye like a tight tussle.

The reality was different, however, from the moment that Darren Sammy’s side got to work with the bat. Between Andre Fletcher, Rahkeem Cornwall, Mark Deyal and Najibullah Zadran, there can be few top orders with greater levels of untamed aggression.

Deyal struck three sixes in his 17-ball stay at the crease, while Fletcher made 46 off just 33 balls. And when they all fell and the wheels briefly threatened to fall off, Mohammad Nabi provided the necessary fireworks to take St Lucia past the 170 mark.

As a list of names on a teamsheet, it almost feels as though it shouldn’t work, but so far the batting line-up is firing, with Roston Chase floating as an insurance option as well.

For Patriots, their depth of their batting looked better for the inclusion of Kieran Powell in the middle order, while Denesh Ramdin’s 46 justified his position at No.4. But once Chris Lynn and Evin Lewis were dismissed, they looked light once more.

A difficult start to this year’s tournament for Rayad Emrit’s men; it gets no easier on Tuesday when they face reigning champions Barbados Tridents.

The Cricketer's coverage of the CPL comes in collaboration with the Caribbean Cricket Podcast