With a great captaining knock from Rovman Powell gets the win for Barbados Royals (BR) over St Kitts and Nevis Patriots (SNP) by 6 wickets.
It was BR’s first win in the CPL and is standing 4th in points table. The Royals last match was washed off due to rain against Jamaica Tallawahs (JT). SNP gets their 3rd loss in 5 matches and stands 5th in the points table with 2 points. They lost their last match against Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAW) by a superb spell of Gudakesh Motie.
Firstly Royals won the toss and Powell opted to bowl first.
In this batting track Patriots played brilliantly and in 20 overs they managed to score 197 with the loss of 6 wickets. Andre Fletcher scored the most number of runs for his team in the match. He scored 51 runs in 38 balls which includes 5 fours and 3 sixes. Sherfane Rutherford (28 runs) produced great shots but he couldn’t convert it into a big one. Lewis (8 runs) once again fails to show some run machine from his account.
Corbin Bosch merciless batting in the death helps Patriots to get close to 200 mark. He made 38 runs in 12 balls and hit 4 fours and 3 sixes. He was well supported by Dominic Drakes (20 runs) in the end. Both of them remain unbeaten at the end.
In the batters paradise, Qais Ahmed provided an economical spell of 16 runs in 4 overs and grabbed 2 important wickets of Fletcher and Goolie. Nyeem Young also gets 2 wickets but was highly expensive in his spell and gave away 54 runs. Rahkeem Cornwall also gets 1 wicket.
Royals from the starting showed no mercy on the Patriots bowlers. For the first wicket Rahkeem Cornwall and Kyle Mayers put 58 runs in just 4 overs. Cornwall made a blasting knock of 38 runs in 15 balls for which he hit 3 fours and 4 sixes. Mayers too showed some good hands and contributed 31 runs in just 17 balls. He hits 4 fours and a six.
Rovman Powell who was hitting the balls easily and it was so easy for him to send the ball outside the stadium. His destructive innings of 67 runs made the chase easy for his team. He scored his 50 in just 21 balls. And made 67 runs in just 29 balls which includes 5 fours and 5 sixes. Also remains unbeaten at the end. Alick Athanaze (30 runs) and Jason Holder (24 runs) also provided some useful runs for his team.
BR chased down the target in 18.3 overs and made 200 runs with the loss of only 4 wickets. And won the match by 6 wickets.
All the bowlers of SNP were beaten brutally and were having highly expensive spells. Dominic Drakes gets 2 wickets while Ashmead Nedd and Corbin Bosch get 1 wicket each.
Qais Ahmed, BR, Player of the Match
“I’m very happy for the match and this performance. The coach told me the wicket is good for me, and that I would do well. The conditions were good for batting, but I bowled line to line and took wickets. Very happy and excited to win.”
Sherfane Rutherford, SNP Captain (in absence of Evin Lewis)
“Lewis is icing an injury. I think we didn’t execute our bowling well. Our fielding also hasn’t been the best. We need to go back to the drawing board. We have a long way to go, we can come back strong. We were short by 20-25 runs, but having said that it is bowlers who can win tournaments.
We didn’t execute the plans. We didn’t hit the mark as much as possible. We should have tried more slower balls and wide yorkers.It is learning for us. Bowling a last over is always pressure, but if you stick to your plans as much as possible it will work out (On Nayeem Young).”
Rovman Powell, BR Captain
“I think the execution was pretty good. The guys are learning and that is important. (On Young’s last over) I think it was me playing what was going on in the moment. I wanted to give the ball to Young and it didn’t work out. But these things build character. Once we get a good score in the powerplay, we know the bowlers are under pressure.
We know what Rahkeem can do if he just stays for 3-4 overs. We got to about 100 after 10 overs with me still to bat. I know the game is on. It is difficult to captain with boundaries of different sizes. I bowled only one over of my left-arm spinner today because they always had a left-handed batter.
I was very clear with my plans. I knew if I played out the leg spinner then I could kill the fast bowlers on this kind of wicket.”