Fletcher, Pollard take St Lucia to rare victory

SAINT LUCIA: Bowlers did the spadework before Andre Fletcher and Kieron Pollard hit 40s as St Lucia Stars recorded a win over Guyana Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premier League.

Guyana were asked to bat first by Pollard, and never quite got going. They finished on 140/9, a below-par score, but the St Lucia chase also stuttered at various points before Fletcher and Pollard made sure they got past the mark with 11 balls in hand.

Luke Ronchi provided the impetus early in the Guyana innings, scoring 24 in nine balls with four fours and a six in an opening-wicket stand of 33 with Chadwick Walton. But Ronchi’s wicket was followed by two more quickly as Guyana slipped to 41/3 and then 62/4.

There was a bit of resistance from Cameron Delport (25) and the lower middle-order of Sherfane Rutherford (15), Sohail Tanvir (19) and Rayad Emrit (17), but not in a big way.

Kesrick Williams (2/23) and Obed McCoy (2/23) were the most successful of the St Lucia bowlers, while Rahkeem Cornwall’s 1/19 from four overs went a long way in keeping the Guyana batsmen quiet.

Lendl Simmons and Fletcher gave St Lucia a decent start, but Simmons (15) and Cornwall, for a duck, were both dismissed by Veerasammy Permaul in the sixth over to create a flutter.

But David Warner, playing his 250th Twenty20 match and in the unusual position at No 4, partnered Fletcher for 52 runs for the third wicket to revive the innings.

Once Warner was dismissed for 23 and Qais Ahmed for six, it gave Guyana a chance, but Pollard and Fletcher, the Player of the Match, made sure the advantage wasn’t lost. Fletcher batted through the innings for a 45* in 46 balls, while Pollard was all systems go, smashing 41* in 18 balls with four fours and three sixes.

The win didn’t lift St Lucia from the bottom of the table, but they got to four points from seven matches.

“We needed these two points. the boys gave their 100 per cent. After two overs, I rallied the guys around and told them this isn’t how we fight for our lives,” said Pollard after the win.

“Restricting them to 140 was fantastic on a ground and a pitch like this. When we were in Guyana, we were in a similar position but we let it slip, but Fletcher did superbly to anchor this innings.

“We rushed through things in the last game and this Guyana line-up had a lot of spinners. I backed myself to take them on and it was a team decision to keep me at No 6.”

For Guyana, the loss was most inopportune, as they slipped from the top of the table to No 2, behind Trinbago Knight Riders on net run-rate. All three of Trinbago, Guyana and Jamaica Tallawahs have six points.

“It would’ve been better if we’d won this game,” agreed Shoaib Malik, the Guyana captain. “Credit to St Lucia’s bowlers to keep us down to 140 on this good track. The first three batters haven’t performed for us, but they are experienced enough to come back hard. As a batting unit, we need to do a little more, but the bowling unit has fired well.”