Johnson Charles and Shane Watson ran riot as the St Lucia Zouks thumped the Guyana Amazon Warriors by nine wickets in a CPL 2016 encounter on Sunday. St. Lucia Zouks have now climbed up to third spot in the CPL 2016 points table, after a couple of impressive victories.
It was supposed to be a mouth-watering clash as both teams had a lot of firepower in their ranks. But in the end, it turned out to be a one-sided affair.
Zouks won the toss and asked the Warriors to bat first. Martin Guptill's absence was felt by the Warriors. Guptill's replacement, Nic Maddinson, was dismissed early but Dwayne Smith and Chris Lynn steadied the innings with a 100-run stand.
Both Smith (56, 51b, 5x4, 2x6) and Lynn (86, 45b, 6x4, 6x6) scored half-centuries, with the latter going on to play a fiery innings.
With the help of Lynn's heroics with the bat, Guyana Amazon Warriors posted a total of 159 at the end of 20 overs.
Shane Watson (4-0-27-2) and Jerome Taylor (4-1-26-2) were the pick of the bowlers for the Zouks.
St Lucia got off to a brilliant start as Johnson Charles went hell for leather. It seemed that he was not ready to spare any of the Warriors' bowlers. However, Zouks did lose the wicket of Andre Fletcher early, even if it had no impact on their run chase.
Watson joined Charles in the middle and the duo added 151 runs together to complete the run chase with ridiculous ease.
Watson (57 n.o., 39b, 7x4) and Charles (94 n.o., 52b, 5x4, 7x6 ) scored a half-century each, with the latter playing a bigger role in the run chase. Zouks completed the thrashing with almost four over to spare.
