BASSETERRE, St Kitts — A game that was in effect a shootout for a spot in the Limacol Caribbean Premier League final ended with the Jamaica Tallawahs going from first to fourth place and the Barbados Tridents coming from nowhere to finish atop the table, qualifying automatically for the final on Saturday.

The Tridents had set the Tallawahs 176 to win, primarily because of an excellent innings of 63 from Kieron Pollard. On this small ground, and on an excellent pitch, that may not have been enough, but some excellent bowling from the Bajans and some poor batting from their opponents saw them run out emphatic winners.

From the very start, regular wickets meant that the Tallawahs were struggling to get close to this target and, for the second game in a row, their batsmen let them down. Having looked like the favourites to win the group stage, the Tallawahs will need to work hard to regroup before the first play-off game on Wednesday.

Scores: Tridents 175 for eight off 20 overs (Kieron Pollard 63, William Perkins 36, Dwayne Smith 32; Rusty Theron 4-35, Daniel Vettori 2-22); Tallawahs 87 all out off 15.3 overs (Nkrumah Bonner 47; Jeevan Mendis 2-15, Ashley Nurse 2-16, Rayad Emrit 2-29).

Meanwhile, in-form opener Lendl Simmons narrowly missed out on three figures as Guyana Amazon Warriors completed the highest-ever run chase in the Caribbean Premier League, to beat St Lucia Zouks by eight wickets here yesterday.

Set an imposing 190 for victory at Warner Park, Amazon Warriors reached their target with an over left, with Simmons run out for 97 in the penultimate over of the game.