Gayle lauds bowlers for Tallawahs winning home games

Kingston (Jamaica), Aug 6 (IANS/CMC) Captain Chris Gayle has praised his teammates in Jamaica Tallawahs for achieving the goal of winning all three of their home matches in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

The Tallawahs made a clean sweep of matches in front their home crowd by beating the Antigua Hawksbills, Guyana Amazon Warriors and the Barbados Tridents, reports CMC.

"We set out a plan to win all our home games, and we did that," said Gayle while heaping special praise on his bowlers.

"The good thing about it is that we are not just batting and winning games, our bowlers have actually been winning games for us, so that kind of makes things much easier for us going into St Kitts."

Tallawahs, the defending champions, are second in the standings behind Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel.

Both teams have six wins from seven games but Red Steel lead on net run rate.

The top team gets an automatic berth in the 2014 finals.

"It's very important (that the team is playing well together); the number one team goes straight to the final, so that's a big, big target," he said.

"We're looking to cross that milestone and, hopefully, we can get there."

However, Gayle has expressed some concern about Tallawahs batting consistency.

"The batting has been up and down. That's something we have to look at and, hopefully, we can get it right," said Gayle who had scores of 59, 22 and 39 in the three home games.

"But once the batting really clicks, I am sure any total over 170 or 180 will make it easier for our bowlers. But this is cricket, sometimes, the wicket doesn't give you that freedom to play your shots, and you have to take that into consideration. All in all, I am happy."

--IANS/CMC