Brandon King leads from front as Jamaica Tallawahs beat Saint Lucia Kings by 11 runs in CPL 2023

The first game of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2023 featured an exciting contest between Saint Lucia Kings (SLK) and Jamaica Tallawahs (JAM), at the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in St. Lucia. JAM won the match by 11 runs.

SLK captain Faf du Plessis won the toss and elected to field first. JAM captain Brandon King led from the front with a brilliant innings of 81 runs from 53 balls to take the Tallawahs to 187. Roston Chase was the pick of the bowlers for the SLK picking up three wickets.

Brandon Kings leads JAM to their first victory of CPL

Jamaica Tallawahs had got off to a flying start in the first five overs, before losing two quick wickets to spinner Roston Chase. The Tallawahs looked in trouble, but skipper King continued to make runs, hitting 12 boundaries in total, including 9 fours and 3 sixes.

Kirk McKenzie (20 runs), Raymon Reifer (16 runs) and Imad Wasim (19 runs) also made valuable contributions. Despite a late flurry of wickets, the JAM managed to reach a competitive total of 187. In reply, SLK had a challenge while chasing the target. Captain Faf du Plessis was out cheaply in the third over scoring just nine runs. Johnson Charles's 24 runs and Sean Williams's 26 runs guided them to 45-1 at the end of the powerplay.

Chase continued his all-round brilliance by scoring an impressive 53 runs off 31 balls, hitting 4 fours and 3 sixes, with support from Roshon Primus who scored 27 odd runs. However, wickets at crucial intervals squandered their momentum for the chase and they could only score 176 runs. Imad Wasim was the pick of the bowlers for JAM, picking up three wickets. Salman Irshad and Chris Green claimed 2 wickets each, while Mohammad Amir was not economical giving away 47 runs.

Brandon King’s outstanding innings earned him the well-deserved Player of the Match award. He said at the post-match, "I have an important role to play at the top. I had to build the partnership and that's all I tried to do. The guys are very experienced, and they helped me make the decisions. The spinners bowled very well. I wasn't worried, it didn't come down too close. Salman has incredible skills. He was very clear in his mind on what he wanted to bowl."