Tallawahs start CPL against Kings
Published:Friday | August 27, 2021 | 12:08 AMLennox Aldred/Gleaner Writer
The Jamaica Tallawahs will get their first taste of action in this year’s Caribbean Premier League when they take on the newly named St Lucia Kings in Basseterre, St Kitts, at 9 a.m. Jamaica time.
Head coach Floyd Reifer made it clear that the team will be looking to have stronger performances from every individual within the side as they look to get off to a winning start against Faf du Plessis and the Kings.
“What we are focusing on this year is playing a solid team game,” he said. “When you play as a unit, you tend to win more games rather than depend on one person with a match-winning performance.”
Rovman Powell has been entrusted to lead the team once again, which has quite a few familiar faces in their side which exited the competition at the semi-final stage last year.
With the team’s top scorer, Glenn Philips, moving to the Barbados Royals, much will lie on the big shoulders of Andre Russell, who scored the second-most runs for the team last season with 222 runs in eight innings, with a top score of 54.
“When you have a guy like Andre Russell in your side, also known as Superman, he can also win games on his own, but I think we have a very good team and we are looking for much-improved performance this season,” Reifer said.
With Nkrumah Bonner and Jermaine Blackwood also missing from this season, the right-hander heavy Tallawahs line-up will also be hoping that Chadwick Walton can shrug off a forgettable 2020 campaign and captain Powell can come to the party this season and better the 106 runs he scored in 10 innings last year.
On the bowling side, the Tallawahs have lost the team’s top two wicket-takers from last year in Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Sandeep Lamichhane, while Carlos Brathwaite could miss out on the season opener after he was put in isolation after a positive COVID-19 case was discovered on his flight to Basseterre.
With that, the Tallawahs will bank on the off-spin of former Guyana Amazon Warriors captain Chris Green, who joins the side along with Afghan leg-spinner Qais Ahmad. Fast bowler Fidel Edwards is also expected to liven up the attack with his pace.
The Kings, coached by Andy Flower, will have significant international flavour in their team, with Pakistan’s Wahab Riaz and Usman Qadir, England’s Samit Pate,l and Singapore’s Tim David.
Much is also expected of local lads, Obed McCoy, Rahkeem Cornwall, Andre Fletcher, and Kesrick Williams.