It was not a nice day, to begin with for the renamed St. Lucia kings in their very first match of the Caribbean Premier League 2021 and it surely wasn’t a nice day to end with as they were thrashed by the Jamaica Tallwahs and consequently suffered the biggest defeat in the history of the league’s nine-year history. After conceding 255 with the ball, the Kings were bundled out for 135 even as Tim David scored 56 at the strike rate of 200.
The Tallawahs won by 120 runs, which is the biggest win by a margin of runs in the history of the CPL. The previous biggest defeat was in the name of the Tallwahs at the hands of St Kitts and Nevis Patriots which came in 2015 at this very ground. The Tallawahs were then defeated by 119 runs, getting bowled out for 80, chasing 200.
Chasing a huge total, Rahkeem Cornwall tried to give the Kings a great start hitting the first two balls for a four and a six. However, his stay was short-lived as the bouncer from Migael Pretorius was enough to find him in the deep where he was caught by skipper Andre Russell. That wicket started the flurry of wickets and it just kept ongoing. There was no partnership of substance till the fall of the sixth wicket in the form of Keemo Paul.
Wahab Riaz and David then tried to reduce the margin of loss as much as possible as the win had gotten out of the equation by that time with 200 needed off 15 overs at more than 14 runs per over.
The duo added 53 runs in just 28 balls and looked like getting near to the 150-180 total to avoid humiliation. But it wasn’t to be as David became Pretorius’ fourth dismissal having gotten the wickets Patriots skipper Faf du Plessis and Roston chase along with Cornwall already. The end was brought about soon as leg spinner Imran Khan helped himself to three quick wickets.
Earlier in the morning, thanks to brilliant batting by Kennar Lewis, Chadwick Walton and Haier Ali at the start of the innings and a superb 14 ball fifty by Dre Russ at the end made sure that Tallawahs recorded the second-highest team total in the history of the league. Russell’s 14 ball fifty also became the fastest fifty in CPL’s history. Courtesy that, the 33-year-old was awarded Man of the match.
With this win, the Tallwahs got to the top of the table thanks to their better net runs rate. They will now face Barbados Royals in their next game on August 29 The Kings will take on Trinbago Knight Riders on the same day as well.