Tamim glows in Saint Lucia loss

Jamaica Tallawahs eased to a comfortable six-wicket win over Saint Lucia Zouks yesterday in the Limacol Caribbean Premier League despite a hard hitting 75 off 62 balls by Zouks’ Bangladeshi opener Tamim Iqbal.   Darren Sammy, the Saint Lucia captain, won the toss and elected to bat first, but the decision backfired as the Zouks started badly with Andre Fletcher and Misbah-ul-Haq dismissed before the fifth over. It was left to Tamim and South African Herschelle Gibbs to put the innings back together.   Tamim, who had only scored 62 runs in the previous four matches, batted with discipline, and the two batsmen were content to take singles and keep the scoreboard moving along. By the end of the Powerplay, the Bangladeshi had already struck three fours, but no one took him seriously as in his last four matches, he started off similarly, striking boundaries, and then getting out. It was almost a question of when he would get out.   But Tamim buckled down after the Powerplay, intent on building a partnership with Gibbs, and building an innings. In fact, so serious he was about staying at the crease, between the seventh and tenth over, he struck one four and one six, residing to keep rotating the strike with Gibbs. It worked for him. Both batsmen rotated the strike nicely, but the run-rate never climbed above six runs an over.   After Gibbs was run out for 22, the Bangladeshi accelerated the tempo and in the 14th over, struck Muralitharan for two boundaries. Tamim and Darren Sammy put on 53 runs before the opener was out for 75 in the 18th over. Notable hard hitters Albie Morkel and Devon Smith were also dismissed, along with Sammy who made 26 from 18 balls, before the innings closed at 142/7.   The target looked like it might be enough as the Tallawahs struggled to maintain pace with the required run rate. When Andre Russell came to the crease, his side needed 77 runs from 47 balls at a challenging 9.50 runs an over. Russell took singles from the first five balls he faced before turning the match decisively in his side’s favour.   Smashing 47 from just 19 balls, Russell was well supported by Vernon Philander who made 18 from five deliveries. The unbroken partnership was worth 41 from 13 balls and saw Jamaica to their target. Russell picked up all three awards – the Limacol Super Six prize, the Digicel 4G Fastest Scorer award and the Man-of-the-Match.