Tallawahs batting woes continue

THE INCONSISTENCY of the Jamaica Tallawahs batting unit was once again on show, as the Jamaican franchise was blown away by the Trinbago Knight Riders, going down by 75 runs in their return Caribbean Premier League (CPL) encounter at Warner Park.

The Tallawahs were no match for the disciplined Knight Riders bowlers, as the Jamaican franchise, chasing 168 for victory, folded for a mere 92 runs in 18.2 overs.

Captain Rovman Powell looked intent in trying to push the score with two sixes in his knock of 22, while Carlos Brathwaite also hit two maximums in his 14, which turned out to be the best scores for the Tallawahs.

Seamer Ali Khan would go on to bag four wickets for just six runs in three overs, to claim his best figures in the CPL.

Earlier, Trinbago Knight Riders, who were asked to take first strike, got off to a slow start, thanks to some tight bowling from the Tallawahs.

The free-scoring opener Lendl Simmons was kept in check somewhat after getting 42 runs in 39 balls with three fours and a six.

The Knight Riders were in a spot of bother at 105 for four in the 18th over. However, Tim Seifert and Kieron Pollard ripped the heart out of the Tallawahs with a swashbuckling display of power hitting.

Seifert clobbered two fours and two sixes in his eight-ball, unbeaten knock of 24, while captain Pollard laced a quick-fire 39 from 18 balls, with a four and four sixes, as the Knight Riders scored 62 runs off the last 17 deliveries.

“Obviously, it was not the ideal sort of position you want to be in after 17 overs, but again, you have to take the conditions into consideration,” Pollard explained.

“I thought it was a total team effort from a batting perspective," he added. "It wasn’t going to be easy and getting 160-odd, I thought we were right into the game.”

Pacers Migael Pretorious and Andre Russell felt the brunt of the onslaught, conceding 28 and 21 runs, respectively, off the 19th and the 20th overs.

With their fourth loss in six games, captain Powell is hoping his team can find the answers quickly.

“I think we just didn't bowl to our plans. We had a plan to make sure they don't hit to the short side and we didn't hit them, we bowled too straight. We should have gone wide. It comes down to execution. If we had executed better in the last three to four overs, we would've been saying a different thing," he said.

"That’s some area for concern now," Powell said of their batting. "It’s happened in two games now and we go again tomorrow, but hopefully overnight, the guys can get it right. We'll keep building on our plans. Two games don't make us a bad team. We always plan to get better, win, lose or draw. We'll just sit down Jamaican-style, have some food, play some dominoes, and have some chats,” said Powell.

SCOREBOARD

TKR

L Simmons c & b Brathwaite 42

L Julien c Brooks b Permaul 17

C Munro st Lewis b Imad Wasim 14

*K Pollard not out 39

DM Bravo c Imad Wasim b Pretorius 14

+Tim Seifert not out 24

Extras (b4, lb3, w9, nb1) 17

TOTAL (4 wkts, 20 overs) 167

Did not bat: S Narine, K Pierre, A Hosein, R Rampaul, Ali Khan.

Fall of wickets: 1-46, 2-84, 3-86, 4-105.

Bowling: Pretorius 4-0-55-1 (w3), Imad Wasim 4-0-13-1 (w1), Green 4-0-31-0 (w2), Permaul 4-0-20-1, Russell 2-0-25-0 (nb1), Brathwaite 2-0-16-1 (w3)

TALLAWAHS

+K Lewis c wkp Seifert b Ali Khan 7

Haider Ali c wkp Seifert b Ali Khan 1

J Mohammed b Narine 10

S Brooks c wkp Seifert b Ali Khan 0

Imad Wasim c Ali Khan b Rampaul 11

*R Powell c Bravo b Pierre 22

C Brathwaite c Narine b Hosein 14

A Russell c Bravo b Narine 1

M Pretorius c Bravo b Rampaul 4

C Green c Munro b Ali Khan 9

V Permaul not out 0

Extras (b1, lb2, w10) 13

TOTAL (all out, 18.2 overs) 92

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-9, 3-9, 4-21, 5-60, 6-63, 7-75, 8-77, 9-89, 10-92.

Bowling: Hosein 4-0-21-1, Ali Khan 3-0-6-4, Pierre 4-0-19-1, Rampaul 3.2-0-32-2 (w5), Narine 4-1-11-2 (w1).

Result: TKR won by 75 runs.

Man-of-the-Match: Ali Khan.

Toss: Tallawahs.

Umpires: C Taylor, D Butler; TV – L Reifer.