De­fend­ing cham­pi­ons, the Bar­ba­dos Tri­dents, left their best per­for­mance for last as they de­feat­ed the Ja­maica Tallawahs in their fi­nal match of the Hero Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL) at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my in Tarou­ba, on Sat­ur­day.

SCORES: Ja­maica Tallawahs 161/4 (20) ver­sus Bar­ba­dos Tri­dents 165/3 (18.2) - Tri­dents win by 7 wk­ts.

Tri­dents go home hav­ing won three of their 10 match­es as they fail to make the se­mi-fi­nals. The Tallawahs will now play the Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers in the se­mi-fi­nals at the BLCA on Tues­day, as they will fin­ish fourth in the stand­ing even if they de­feat the St Lu­cia Zouks in their fi­nal pre­lim­i­nary match, on Sun­day.

Af­ter Jer­maine Black­wood 74 and An­dre Rus­sell 54 com­bined to give the Tallawahs a healthy 161/4 off their al­lot­ted 20 overs, the Tri­dents bats­men led by skip­per Ja­son Hold­er was ready for the fight.

By the sec­ond over, two men were al­ready pack­ing their bags but skip­per Hold­er and Jonathan Carter did not let this de­ter them. Hold­er took the bull by the horns and at­tacked the bowl­ing. He played freely and the runs came with a pos­i­tive in­tent. By the time, he left on a du­bi­ous um­pir­ing de­ci­sion for 69, the writ­ing was on the wall.

Carter stayed the course to bring home the win in the com­pa­ny of Mitchel Sant­ner. Hold­er was bril­liant in the evening tak­ing just 42 balls to score his 69. He slammed three six­es and nine fours. Carter played the sec­ond fid­dle and when Hold­er left he and New Zealan­der Sant­ner stepped up to the plate and de­liv­ered. Carter was un­beat­en on 42 from 44 balls with four fours and Sant­ner 35 not out off 21 balls with two six­es and three fours.

Ear­li­er, the Tallawahs kept wick­ets for their late on­slaught and it worked well for them. Black­wood sent in to open for the first time in the tour­na­ment got at­tacked the bowl­ing ear­ly and the run-rate was al­ways around sev­en an over. He guid­ed the in­nings and when Rus­sell came in with eight overs to go, the two pressed the ac­cel­er­a­tor and runs be­gan to flow.

Rus­sell, know­ing full well that he has the pow­er, did not try to hit every ball. His in­ning was mea­sured and he added 37 runs with Black­wood in no time. When Black­wood left for 74 off 59 balls with four six­es and five fours, the foun­da­tion was well set.

Rus­sell ham­mered his way to a half-cen­tu­ry falling in the fi­nal over, af­ter hit­ting five six­es and four fours off just 28 balls.

SCORES:

Ja­maica Tallawahs 161/4 (20) (Jer­maine Black­wood 74, An­dre Rus­sell 54) vs Bar­ba­dos Tri­dents 165/3 (18.2) (Ja­son Hold­er 69, Jonathan Carter 42no, Mitchel Sant­ner 35no) - Tri­dents won by 7 wk­ts.