The final battle of the tenth season of the Caribbean Premier League ended last Friday night between Barbados Royals and Jamaica Tallawahs at Guyana’s Providence Stadium, with Jamaica Tallawahs winning by 8 wickets.
The Royals won the toss and batted first and scored 161 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Accordingly, the Tallawahs’ batters easily passed their target of 162 runs by losing only two wickets and became the CPL champions for the third time.
2022 However, many people may not have thought that the Tallawahs will claim the Caribbean Premier League title. That’s because they’ve won just two of seven games, especially after a mid-season slump, and the Royals have won eight of 10 games to become the mighty team in the series.
Jamaica Tallawahs previously claimed the inaugural title in the 2013 tournament at the Queens Park Oval, defeating the Warriors, and again in 2016 when they defeated the Warriors to claim the 2016 title. After becoming champions for the third time, Tallawahs captain Rovman Powell says the team endured a lot of indignities throughout the tournament and that the humiliations provided motivation.
“Adjectives cannot describe how I feel right now. We endured a lot of disrespect throughout the tournament so to be here now is amazing. We used the disrespect that we endured as motivation. We were hungry.”
In the 2022 CPL season, three centuries have been scored, and two of them are by Jamaicans. In the tenth season, top scorer King scored a century while the other Thallwahs player was the much underrated Shamarh Brooks. According to Captain Powell,
“The guys were very hungry. I told them to hang in and that we have a lot of batters and we can get it. The first 100 that Brandon scored, it was in a losing cause and so the guys felt really hurt that it was in a losing cause but we told the guys that’s what big boy cricket is about.”
Powell has led several franchises and also served as the vice-captain of the West Indies before becoming the captain of the Jamaican franchises.
“So, to see Brooks score a 100 the other night in a win was special. I’ve captained a few teams and franchises before I captained Jamaica so I’ve been learning. Sometimes I feel down and out because I’m human, but my family rallied around me.”
The Warriors lost to the Jamaica Tallawahs in the 2nd qualifier match of the tournament, but most Guyanese supporters supported the champions Tallawahs in the final. After the match, Powell did not forget to thank the Guyana supporters.
“I wanna say a special thanks to the Guyanese supporters.”