RBCPL24: De Kock, rain put a damper on resurgent Falcons, as Barbados Royals triumph

It rained at the Kensington Oval in Barbados on Wednesday, not sixes but H2O. It meant that, in Match 13 of the 2024 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL), the Barbados Royals did not need to match the 176 for 5 the Antigua and Barbuda Falcons posted off their 20 overs.

And Quinton de Kock (48, 30balls, 2×6, 4×4) and Alick Athanaze (34, 29b, 1×6, 3×4) combined to add 71 for the second wicket by the end of the tenth over to make it relatively easy for the Royals batting line-up to get them over the line.

The rain did not allow the home crowd to find out if their troops were up to it. According to DLS, par was 117 and the Royals were 10 ahead of that target.

With ABF given first strike, opener Justin Greaves notched his second CPL half-century, carrying his bat for a 52-ball 61. And Sam Billings rode his luck to get to his first half-century this season.

Their 92-run second-wicket partnership got the Falcons up to what Billings deemed to be in the existing conditions a par 176.

Things had started well for ABF. They got to 58 for 1 in the seventh over when Brandon King inexplicably ran down the track at Keshav Maharaj’s first ball, and made no contact. He just kept going to the pavilion.

That let in Billings, who has struggled to find form so far this season. Given a life on 11 by Maharaj, who grassed a simple return catch, he got a second large slice of luck when Rovman Powell and Rahkeem Cornwall got in each other’s way and allowed a catch to fall to the ground.

The unfortunate bowler was Obed McCoy—all the more unfortunate because Billings had crashed the first four balls of the over to the boundary.

Billings (56, 43b, 1×6, 5×4) saw his luck run out when a Holder delivery cannoned off his body and on to his stumps. Three wickets then fell in quick succession, Holder claiming another one in the same over and Naveen-ul-Haq sending back two in the next.

At the other end, Greaves (61*, 52b, 1×6, 8×4) had not been able to maintain his early momentum. But he kept his wicket intact, slowly adding to the 51 he had scored of his first 39 balls. It was not his most memorable knock but it gave his team a chance of a third successive win.

If he had been able to hold on to a vicious square-cut from Man-of-the-Match de Kock before he had scored, perhaps the result would have been different. But after ABF skipper Chris Green had Rahkeem Cornwall caught at mid-off in the second over, Athanaze, back after injury, joined the South African wicketkeeper.

Their stand was worth 72 before the West Indian left-hander was run out after a mid-pitch mix-up allowed Billings to break the stump with a direct throw, with Athanaze well out of his ground.

De Kock stayed around until 93 for 3 when, in the middle of a marathon over by Roshon Primus that yielded 23 runs, including seven wides and three no-balls, he gloved a legal delivery to Billings.

With 84 needed off the remaining eight overs, Powell and new arrival David Miller saw their team to 127 midway through the 14th over. Then, the elements intervened to deny the visitors a chance to snatch an upset win.

The Royals (6pts) will seek to hobble the Trinbago Knight Riders (4pts) at Kensington Oval on Friday before they bid to tame the defending champions Guyana Amazon Warriors (6pts) in a top-of-the-table clash at the same venue one day later.

The Barbados-based franchise have not put a foot wrong so far but this is a different quality of opposition, two teams that think in terms of where rather than whether they will qualify.

West Indies T20 captain Powell will know that they must raise their game.

“Little England,” one can almost hear the Royals skipper haranguing his men in the huddle, “expects every man to do his duty.”

Ahead of ABF (4pts), who are seeing qualification slipping further and further away, is a return clash with the Saint Lucia Kings (4pts) at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground in Saint Lucia on Sunday.

SLK too are backpedalling but they will take solace from their convincing seven wicket win when they met in Antigua in Match 6.

But since then, the Falcons have twice come out on the winning side and have regained the services of the dangerous Brandon King. They know that a positive result is the one they will have to reproduce.

Should they fail to earn two points, their margin for error virtually disappears as they are pitted against top-of-the-table opposition in three away matches after that.

For them, therefore, a top-four finish becomes a very difficult proposition.

Summarised scores

Toss: Barbados Royals

Antigua and Barbuda Falcons: 176 for 5 (20 overs) Justin Greaves 61*, Sam Billings 57, Brandon King 27; Naveen-ul-Haq 2/34, Jason Holder 2/36

Barbados Royals: 127 for 3 (14.3 overs) Quinton de Kock 48, Alick Athanaze 34; Roshon Primus 1/27, Chris Green 1/32

Man-of-the-Match: Quinton de Kock

Result: Barbados Royals win by 10 runs (DLS method)

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Earl Best

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.