Brandon King scores 81 as defending champs Jamaica Tallawahs opens 2023 CPL season with 11-run win over St Lucia Kings
By Leighton Levy
August 16, 2023
Captain Brandon King led from the front with a commanding half-century to lead defending champions Jamaica Tallawahs to an 11-run victory over the St Lucia Kings as the 2023 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League got underway at the Darren Sammy Stadium in St Lucia on Wednesday.
King, the Player of the Match, scored a match-high 81 from 53 balls to lead the Tallawahs to 187 from their 20 overs. Roston Chase scored a quick-fire 50 but the Kings came up short scoring 176-8.
King and Kirk McKenzie opened with a stand of 44 that was broken when Chase removed McKenzie for 20. It would be the first of three wickets that the Tallawahs would lose in quick succession as Chase also dismissed Shamarh Brooks for 12 and Alzarri Joseph removed Amir Jangoo for a duck to leave the defending champions tottering at 62-3, having lost three wickets for 19 runs.
King found a useful partner in Raymon Reifer, who together put on a fourth-wicket stand of 77 that put the Tallawahs on track to a score of over 200 runs. Chase broke the stand when he dismissed Reifer for 16 and triggered a middle-order slide.
Fabian Allen smashed two fours and a six before he was run out for 15 and then King was finally dismissed for 81 that included nine fours and three sixes. Imad Wasim was the last man out for crucial 19 as the Tallawahs lost three wickets off the final three balls of the innings, Mohammad Amir and Nicholson Gordon both run out without scoring.
Chase finished with 3-39 and Joseph 2-21.
Chase also shone with the bat with 53 from 31 balls and got support from Roshon Primus who smashed 37 from just 20 balls as the pair put on a sixth-wicket stand of 61 that threatened to turn the match in favour the Kings.
However, once Primus was run out by Amir for 37, the innings quickly fell away as Chase was then bowled by Salman Irshad who also bowled Matthew Forde for four.
Earlier Johnson Charles rode his luck after being dropped twice to make 24 and Sean Williams contributed 26. Chris Green removed both as the Kings began to fall behind the required run rate. Meanwhile, Imad Wasim dismissed the dangerous Faf de Plessis for nine and then took the wickets of Sikandar Raza for four and Kimani Melius for a duck in consecutive deliveries that had the Kings struggling at 104-5 and needing to score at 14 runs an over in the final six.
Chase and Primus did their best but it proved to be a bridge too far.
Wasim finished with 3-27 while Irshad took 2-39. Chris Green’s two wickets came at a cost of 28 runs.
Leighton Levy
Leighton Levy is a journalist with 28 years’ experience covering crime, entertainment, and sports. He joined the staff at SportsMax.TV as a content editor two years ago and is enjoying the experience of developing sports content and new ideas. At SportsMax.tv he is pursuing his true passion - sports.
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Full scores: Pakistan 134-8 off 20 overs (Sidra Ameen 48, Muneeba Ali 25, Ayesha Zafar 22, Afy Fletcher 3-17, Qiana Joseph 2-26)
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