Our batting hasn’t stood up this season – Powell

The word 'tallawah' in Jamaican parlance means 'strong'. However, the Jamaican Caribbean Premier League franchise, the Tallawahs, were nothing but this season, as they bowed out of the 2020 competition following a one-sided nine-wicket semi-final loss to the Trinbago Knight Riders on Tuesday.

The Rovman Powell-led Tallawahs were once again woeful with the bat, as they have been all season, as the Jamaican franchise was restricted to only 107 runs while losing seven wickets against the spin-heavy TKR bowling unit.

The Kieron Pollard-led Knight Riders eased to the victory target for the loss of just one wicket as Lendl Simmons, 54, and Tion Webster with 44 completed the hammering for the host franchise, who will be playing in their fourth CPL final.

Disappointing season

For Powell and company, the end of a disappointing season could not come fast enough, as the Tallawahs registered their seventh loss of the campaign.

Only Nkrumah Bonner showed up with the bat in the semi-final on Tuesday, scoring 41 runs from 42 balls, while Powell himself got his best score of the tournament, 33 in the final match of the competition.

For the first-time captain, the batting has surely let the team down and a lot of introspection needs to happen.

"We played a lot of inconsistent cricket and the batters haven't stood up all season. We asked our international batters to bat most of the overs and we just didn't do that," said Powell.

In retrospect, Powell says there is not much he would have changed with regard to the team; however, he praised the efforts of his two international spinners who stood out this season with the ball.

"The batters just didn't come to the party. However, if you should look at it from a bowling perspective, I think our bowlers handled themselves very well. Our two international spinners did well in the middle overs and even when we started, the pace bowlers were good," added Powell.

Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who picked up the wicket of Sunil Narine in the semi-final, ended the tournament with 16 wickets. His spin partner, Sandeep Lamichhane, snared 12 scalps to lead the Tallawahs bowling this season.

For successive seasons, opener Glenn Phillips, who made two runs in the semi-final, was the team's leading run-scorer with 316 runs.