Zouks win leaves Hawksbills in CPL cellar

The St Lucia Zouks outlasted the Antigua Hawksbills, and plenty of island rain, to bring their home fans a long awaited first win of the season in a five-wicket victory at Beausejour Stadium in Gros Islet on Sunday. The Zouks chased down a Duckworth-Lewis target of 106 with 15 balls to spare after the Hawksbills made 103 for 6 in a match reduced to 16 overs following a series of rain delays. The Hawksbills are now the only winless team remaining in the CPL.

Darren Sammy won the toss and elected to field first as the Zouks struck a pair of early blows following an 18-minute delayed start due to afternoon showers in St. Lucia. Sohail Tanvir struck Ben Dunk on the pads with a sharp inswinger to win an lbw appeal three balls into the match before Mervin Mathew dismissed Devon Thomas with a lofted drive that failed to clear Shane Shillingford at mid-off to leave the score 6 for 2 at the end of the second over.

Shacaya Thomas tried to slog Shillingford over the midwicket boundary two balls into the ninth over but going against the wind resulted in a simple catch inside the rope for Johnson Charles to make it 30 for 3. One more delivery was played before dark clouds brought a brief but heavy shower to delay play for 50 minutes. No overs were deducted by the time play resumed but only one more ball was able to be bowled before the skies opened up yet again for a third delay. A further 40-minute interruption resulted in four overs being deducted per side.

Danza Hyatt wound up top-scoring for the Hawksbills with 26 off 36 before a terrible mixup with Marlon Samuels resulted in Hyatt sacrificing his wicket making the score 47 for 4 in the 11th over. Samuels, David Hussey and Carlos Brathwaite combined for five sixes down the stretch of the innings, but they were bracketed by too many dot balls as the Hawksbills failed to post a competitive target. Tanvir in particular did an excellent job restricting the scoring. Just two runs were conceded off his last over in the 15th and he finished with figures of 3 for 15 in four overs.

The Zouks also struggled early in their innings as Gavin Tonge made his presence felt for the Hawksbills in his first CPL game of the year. Tonge took the wickets of Andre Fletcher, caught at mid-off for 2, and Keddy Lesporis, slashing to third man for 1, to end up with figures of 2 for 12. Combined with Carlos Brathwaite's successful lbw appeal on Charles for 11, it left the Zouks 21 for 3 inside of four overs.

Overseas player Henry Davids arrived at number five and provided some much needed stability, shepherding Sunil Ambris through a 46-run partnership. The stand ended when Ambris attempted to complete a tight second run for Davids and was well short from the throw by sub fielder Justin Athanaze from long-on to Brathwaite over the bowler's end stumps for 17.

Davids added another 26 with Tanvir for the fifth wicket and fell for a game-high 43 in the 13th over with 13 needed to win and victory in sight. After his earlier success with the ball, Tanvir put his final stamp on the game with the bat by crushing consecutive sixes over midwicket in the 14th to clinch the match.