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Chasing 154 to condemn the Saint Kitts and Nevis Patriots to their fourth defeat in five games, the Barbados Royals lost their first wicket without a run on the board.
And contriving to avoid the disastrous start of the Patriots, whose first three wickets fell before the end of the second over and before they had scored, the Royals eventually reached 157 for 8 to win by two wickets—off the second-last ball of Game 9 of the 2024 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) at Warner Park in Basseterre on Friday.
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With nine needed off the last over, Jason Holder hit the first ball, a full toss, to deep midwicket where Josh Clarkson dived low to take a very good catch.
With three still needed off the last three balls, Maheesh Theekshana tried to steal a single and was run out. But Nyeem Young (17 not out) held his nerve and smashed Ryan John’s next ball for six over long-off.
Royals captain Rovman Powell said his team has “a very good overseas spin department and that is very important in the Caribbean”.
He expressed the view that the game was won by a single shrewd decision to promote Man-of-the-Match left-arm finger-spinner Dunith Wellalage in the batting order.
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“A key moment in the game,” he told the post-match interviewer, “was when we decided to send in a left-hander to push it around. They did not have an off-spinner.”
With “me Jason and Nyeem to come, we always knew we could put them under pressure”.
Powell did not say it but his team also put itself under pressure. They got 53 in the powerplay but lost both openers to the swing of Kyle Mayers (2/17) before it was over.
And by the tenth over, they had progressed to 72 but two more batsmen were already back in the dressing-room.
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Apart from the last over of the powerplay, which went for 18, the freshly landed Wanindu Hasaranga (1/33) was very economical as was left-armer Veerasammy Permaul (1/16). But Powell and Wellalage added 49 in eight overs to reduce the deficit to 34.
And Holder (17) and Young did the rest. They got a little help from Patriots captain Andre Fletcher who, instead of Mayers’ quicker stuff, opted to go with Mohammed Mohsin’s leg-breaks and googlies for the 18th over.
Fletcher tried to put a brave face on things, saying that “we are still young in the tournament and we can win our next five”.
“We want to be positive,” he said, “but we have to be smart as well.”
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Saying he was “happy in the sense that the bowlers did their utmost”, he added: “We could not ask for anything more.”
Losing the toss, his team also lost Evin Lewis and Kyle Mayers to the right-arm leg-spin of Maheesh Theekshana and the skipper himself to left-armer Dunith Wellalage, all without scoring. A third Sri Lankan, Hasaranga, then took over the spotlight.
He and partner Mikyle Louis took 16 off Theekshana’s second over and just as many off Naveen Ul Haq’s first when Rovman Powell somewhat surprisingly opted to turn to pace in the last over of the powerplay.
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The pair put on 82 before Wellalage had Louis (30, 2×6, 3×4) caught at point in the ninth over. And then, with the last ball of the same over, added the scalp of Sherfane Rutherford for a duck—the fourth in the innings.
Obed McCoy then accounted for Hasaranga (40, 27, 1×6, 5×4) in the next over.
From 86 for 6, the Patriots somehow managed to sneak past 150, Clarkson contributing an unconvincing, unbeaten 24 off 32 balls and John a rapid 29 off just 14 balls.
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Neither Wellalage (4-0-35-3) nor Theekshana (4-2-16-2) was able to add to his early haul although the right-hander, who served up two maidens, had two overs in the middle of the innings after six wickets had already fallen.
In the end, they had done enough.
The Royals are now second on the points table with a better-than-decent 1.210 run-rate. They will be feeling very good about their chances of solidifying their position, given that their next assignment is at home in Kensington Oval on Wednesday against the table-proppers Antigua and Barbuda Falcons.
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The Patriots too, with four losses in their five games so far, are also near the bottom of the table. And they too are at home to the Falcons in their next game.
At a time when their confidence is at a very low ebb, they could hardly hope for a better match-up to provide a top-up.
Summarised scores
Toss: Barbados Royals
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots: 153 for 8 (20 overs) Wanindu Hasaranga 40, Mikyle Louis 30, Ryan John 29; Josh Clarkson 24*; Dunith Wellalage 3/35, Maheesh Theekshana 2/16, Obed McCoy 2/23
Barbados Royals: 157 for 8 (19.5 overs) Dunith Wellalage 39, Kadeem Alleyne 30; Kyle Mayers 2/17
Man-of-the-Match: Dunith Wellalage
Result: Barbados Royals win by two wickets
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Earl Best taught cricket, French, football and Spanish at QRC for many years and has written consistently for the Tapia and the Trinidad and Tobago Review since the 1970’s.
He is also a former sports editor at the Trinidad Guardian and the Trinidad Express and is now a senior lecturer in Journalism at COSTAATT.
