Tallawahs vs Royals, 14th Match at Bridgetown, CPL 2023, Aug 31 2023 - Match Result

Alick Athanaze stole the show with his pyrotechnics. He was the main protagonist behind Barbados Royals' comprehensive win, scoring a staggering 76-run knock and striking at 158.33 to break the back of the chase. The Royals didn't disappoint the jam-packed home crowd tonight, and the entire team looked determined to get back to winning ways. Earlier, Kyle Mayers bowled a magnificent spell of swing bowling in the powerplay, and then Jason Holder reaped the rewards by keeping it tight, picking up two wickets in his quota of overs. As for Tallawahs, they have lost two games in a row; they might feel they should have scored 20 extra runs and been more consistent with the ball. Salman Irshad missed his target quite a few times in the last over, and Imad Wasim was not at his belligerent best. Chris Green was exceptional though and hardly bowled a loose delivery, while Mohammad Amir was superb with the new ball, getting it to swing markedly in the channel in the powerplay. From myself, Rvel Zahid, and our scorer Binoy George, it's goodbye for now!

Rovman Powell, Barbados Royals Captain: I am struggling (on leg injury), hopefully after tonight, it'll settle down. Unfortunate thing is that the time is not on my side. We go in again in less than 48 hours. The conversation was very brief and very short. We are not bad cricketers after one game. You get bowl out for 60, you can't really talk about much. There was constant belief in the guys, somebody in the team had to stand up. The previous games, we get excess of a 190 to score but today it was good to see they got two wickets in the powerplay. I think it was commendable. (Alick Athanaze) was fantastic. On a wicket that is a little bit slow, we needed someone to score 70-75 and I think Alick tonight was excellent. We talked to him last night, saying that all he need to do was just play proper cricket shots, don't try anything funky...just play cricket shots and he will be successful. I think he has a very good future. It's important that West Indies look at that and start managing him from now. We have seen players play all three formats in such quick time. Definitely there is talent. There is a lot of talent in Caribbean but the problem is we don't harness that talent. We asked the guys to improving 10-15 percent from yesterday's disappointment and I think they did that today, credit should be given to guys when it's due. They get a day off tomorrow, rest, recover and think about good that they did today and try to replicate it come the next day.

Brandon King, Jamaica Tallawahs Captain:: We are not going to win every game. That being said, we will look at areas that we want to improve in. Obviously batting, top order, is a little bit of a concern, and I will take responsibility, I am a major part of that. I thought it was a decent pitch, I thought we were 20 runs short. Bowling second, with the dew, ball was very wet, I will give bowlers credit, they tried their best on this surface. Excellent innings from Brooks. we were in a bit of trouble similar to last game, he came in, took his time, got the pace of the wicket...had an explosive end to the winnings which put us in good position. I think it's just a mindset issue, we need to focus a bit more.