Tallawahs skipper Brandon King won the toss at the Providence Stadium in Guyana and chose to bowl first which proved to be an inspired decision. Up against a powerful batting line up, they held the St Lucia Kings to 125-9 on a slow and low wicket thanks to Fabian Allen’s 4-25. In reply, Tallawahs finished on 126-5 in 17.2 overs.
The Kings struggled to get going on a slower batting track which was proved by low scores for key players Johnson Charles (13), Colin Munro (1) and previous match winner Bhanuka Rajapaska (14). Barbadian Roston Chase arrived at the crease with the score 23-2 after 3.5 overs and was the only batter to make a significant contribution as wickets continued to fall cheaply around him. His knock of 40 runs which included four boundaries and one six got the Kings to a score of 125-9 which always felt like too low a score.
Chasing down a paltry total, the Tallawahs got off to a great start reaching 63-2 at the end of the powerplay. Openers King (30) and Alex Hales (24) did the bulk of the damage which allowed Raymon Reifer to construct a fine innings of 30 runs to see his side home despite impressive figures of 4-23 from Barbadian medium pace bowler Matthew Forde.
Winning this fixture means they will compete in Qualifier Two on Friday where they will face the loser of Wednesday’s fixture between Guyana Amazon Warriors and Trinbago Knight Riders at Providence Stadium.
The winner of Wednesday’s match will go straight into Sunday’s 2023 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League final.
Summarised Scores