Tallawahs in semi-finals - Jamaican franchise in CPL last four after Tridents lose to Warriors

The Jamaica Tallawahs have qualified for the semi-finals of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) despite their encounter with the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots being abandoned due to rain yesterday.

The Jamaican franchise, who are in fourth position on seven points with two games remaining, cannot be overtaken by the fifth-placed Barbados Tridents, who lost to the Guyana Amazon Warriors by six wickets in last night’s late game. The Tridents, who have one game remaining, are on four points.

The top four teams at the end of the preliminary round automatically advance to the semi-finals.

In the meantime, only 5.4 overs were possible before heavy persistent showers ended yesterday’s early contest between the Tallawahs and the Patriots who were 46 without loss when the rains came.

The washout means that the sides get a point each, which pushed the Tallawahs to seven points from eight matches, while the bottom team Patriots have been eliminated from the competition after they could only muster three points in nine games.

Tallawahs head coach Floyd Reifer was hoping that his side would have been able to get in useful match action, especially with the team starting to find some momentum in the batting department which has been lacking all tournament.

For Reifer, the remaining games will be a dress rehearsal for the semi-finals with the ultimate prize being a place in the final.

“In tournaments like these, it’s best to catch the momentum at the right time. I think that we have shown a lot of improvements the last two times we batted where we got 147 and 165, so there is an improvement in the batting and we are not losing as many wickets at the top like we were before and the guys are adapting to the conditions,” said Reifer.

DIFFICULT YEAR

The first-year Tallawahs coach says this year’s tournament has been difficult for batsmen. Nicholas Pooran of the Guyana Amazon Warriors has scored the only century of the tournament thus far.

“It has been a difficult tournament for everyone. We will continue to challenge ourselves and look to improve in the areas that we need to improve on and our approach is still to win cricket games,” added Reifer.

Reifer mentioned that under-fire captain Rovman Powell has been doing well despite coming under pressure for his lack of productivity with the bat. However, the Barbadian says Powell has the talent to deliver at any given time.

“Rovman has been making a lot of good decisions and the guys have responded well to him. He is a confident and positive player and those are some goods signs of a leader, all he needs to do is to spend a little more time at the wicket and get in, and once he does that, he will score runs.”

The Tallawahs’ next assignment will be against last year’s champions, the Tridents, tomorrow.