Barbados Royals claim third straight victory

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados:

Barbados Royals kicked off their four-game home fixtures with a less than impressive 10-run victory over the Antigua & Barbuda Falcons in a rain-affected contest at Kensington Oval on Wednesday night.

The Royals produced a shoddy performance in the field before their home fans, which assisted the Falcons in reaching their eventual total of 176 for five from their 20 overs.

Quinton de Kock and Alick Athanaze then set a solid foundation for the Royals, who reached 127 for three in 14.3 overs before heavy showers brought a premature end to the match and gave the home side victory via the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.

It was the Royals' third successive win in as many matches, and they joined defending champions Guyana Amazon Warriors as the only unbeaten teams remaining in the tournament.

Despite the result, the Royals would have been disappointed with their fielding, which included three dropped catches and several misfields.

Falcons' openers Brandon King and Justin Greaves gave them a perfect start, slamming 55 runs from the first six overs to put Royals on the backfoot.

King, who was dropped at long on by Royals' captain Rovman Powell when he was 18, made a boundary-studded 27 with five fours, before being stumped off the bowling of spinner Keshav Maharaj.

Sam Billings joined Greaves at the crease and the pair frustrated the Royals' bowlers during a 92-run partnership for the second wicket that spanned 12 overs.

While both batsmen scored half centuries, they struggled to increase the run rate against average bowling.

Billings also survived two dropped chances; the first as Maharaj put down a regulation return catch when he was just 11 and later when Rahkeem Cornwall and Powell collided after he skied a delivery from Obed McCoy to extra cover, when he was 54.

Jason Holder eventually broke the stand when he bowled Billings for 56. His innings lasted 43 balls and contained five fours and one six.

Fabian Allen (1), Chris Green (4) and Roshon Primus (6) all had short stints before Shamar Springer struck a four and a six in an unbeaten 10 from three balls to finish off the innings.

Greaves batted through the innings and finished unbeaten on 61 from 52 balls, with eight fours and one six.

Holder and Naveem-ul-Haq captured two wickets apiece for the Royals.

The Royals got off to a shaky start in their run chase, with Cornwall facing seven balls before lofting spinner Chris Green straight into the hands of Primus at mid off without scoring to leave the score 1-0.

Athanaze and de Kock added 72 runs in nine overs to steady the innings before Athanaze was needlessly run out for 34 after colliding with de Kock, trying to complete a quick single.

The turning point in the match came in the 12th over bowled by Primus.

In what could only be described as catastrophic, Primus sent down four wides and three no balls in an over that lasted 13 balls and conceded 23 runs.

He did manage to dismiss de Kock in the over, but when the rains eventually came two overs later and forced the players off the field, the Royals were comfortably ahead of the DLS by 12 runs.

De Kock made 48 from 30 balls with four boundaries and two sixes.

The players returned to the field, but not for long, as heavy showers forced the end of the match, with the home side still ahead of the DLS.

- CMC