Barbados Royals got their first win of the 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with a comfortable 15 run victory over the Jamaica Tallawahs on Saturday.
Royals won the toss and opted to bat first and Glenn Phillips ensured that they put a competitive total of 161-5 on the board with an unbeaten 56 from 46 balls.
In reply the Tallawahs chase was over before it really began as they lost four wickets in the PowerPlay and as a result never kept pace with the run rate, managing 146-9.
The Royals opted to make a change to their opening pair – with Shai Hope partnering Johnson Charles and it appeared to work with them putting on 32 run partnership from 20 balls.
However, once Hope was dismissed it sparked a flurry of wickets that left Barbados teetering at 48-3 at the end of PowerPlay. It should have been even worse but Haider Ali dropped Glen Phillips when he was on 2 runs.
Phillips punished that drop in the back end of the Barbados innings hitting a half century with 56 runs from 46 balls and he was ably assisted by Raymon Reifer in a brisk partnership of 79 runs.
A score of 161 always looked like 15 runs too many and the Tallawahs got their chase off to the worst possible start losing four wickets inside the PowerPlay.
Some good bowling and electric fielding by Hayden Walsh Jr had the Tallawahs on the back foot throughout.
Carlos Braithwaite and Shamarh Brooks threatened to bring them back into the game with a 66-run partnership but a double strike from Reifer got rid of Braithwaite and Andre Russell in the same over.
Despite some late blows from Miguel Pretorius that made the last few overs interesting there was always too much for the Tallawahs to do once Russell had departed.
On Friday, the Royals suffered a six-wicket loss to the Trinbago Knight Riders.
Summarised scores:
Jamaica Tallawahs 255-5 (Russell 50*, Lewis 48; McCoy 3-52, Chase 2-33) beat Saint Lucia Kings 135 all out (David 56, Riaz 26; Pretorius 4-32, Khan 3-7). Tallawahs won by 120 runs.
Trinbago Knight Riders 125-4 (Pollard 58*, Ramdin 29*; Amir 3-21). Barbados Royals 122 (Khan 30, Phillips 24; Udana 5-21, Rampaul 2-13). Knight Riders won by six wickets.
St Kitts & Nevis Patriots 147-2 (Lewis 62, Thomas 55*). Guyana Amazon Warriors 146-8 (Hemraj 39, Hafeez 38*; Drakes 3-26, Ahmed 2-33). Patriots won by eight wickets.
Barbados Royals 161-5 (Phillips 56*, Reifer 31*; Permaul 2-15). Jamaica Tallawahs 146-9 (Brooks 47, Brathwaite 29*; Reifer 3-25, Perera 2-17). Royals won by 15 runs.
