Jamaica Tallawahs vs Barbados Royals
This was the most anticipated match of the season as the two teams topping the table, Barbados Royals and Jamaica Tallawahs were going head-to-head. The Tallawahs were up against the so far unbeaten Royals.
Royals’ Captain, David Miller won the toss and put the Tallawahs to bat first. The Tallawahs had a shaky start to their innings, as they lost Brandon King and Kennar Lewis by the 4th over scoring just 12 runs. Captain Rovman Powell, joined by Amir Jangoo steadied the innings and put up a fine partnership of 57 runs. The dismissal of Jangoo in the 11th over saw the power hitter Raymond Reifer come onto the field. Powell continued attacking the bowlers and scored 21 runs in the 12th over, bringing up his 50. After the loss of Powell’s wicket in the 14th over, Raymond Reifer took charge by knocking 41 runs off just 26 balls. Despite losing wickets at regular intervals, the Tallawahs managed to put up a score of 156/8 by the end of their innings.
With a target of 157 to be achieved, the Royals batsmen Kyle Mayers and Quinton de Kock were looking to go hard at the bowlers which resulted in the dismissal of Mayers to a Chris Green delivery in the 2nd over. Luck favoured de Kock as a ball from Imad Wasim managed to hit the stumps, activated the stump lights, but the bails refused to fall. De Kock went on to put up a 100-run partnership with Corbin Bosch with both batsmen scoring half centuries. Amir came on and took Bosch’s wicket in the 18th over. Royals still needed 23 off 17 balls when fellow South African David Miller joined de Kock at the crease. Miller hit a six and a four in the 19th over to turn the match in favour of the Royals. With 3 runs needed of the final over, Captain Powell managed to stifle the batsmen and brought it down to the penultimate ball before Miller hit the winning runs giving the Royals an 8 wicket win over the Tallawahs.
Obed McCoy was the Man of the Match as he took 3 wickets for 24 runs in his 4 overs.
Despite a slow start, the Tallawahs managed to take the game down to the wire. With this fighting spirit, the Jamaica Tallawahs will look to face St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in their next match.