KINGSMEN SEEK FIRST WIN Jamaican franchise aims to topple Amazon Warriors after back-to-back heartbreakers

Two agonising defeats in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 championship have left the Jamaica Kingsmen searching for answers.
However, captain Rovman Powell insists his side’s fighting spirit remains intact as they turn their attention to tonight’s crunch clash against the Guyana Amazon Warriors at Sabina Park, starting at 7.
After falling five runs short against Barbados Tridents on Tuesday night, the Kingsmen, who suffered a one-run defeat in their opening game against the Antigua and Barbuda Falcons on Friday night, find themselves far from broken. 
“We’ve played two nail-biting games, and it’s just for us to get on the right side of one of them,” Powell said in his latest post-match assessment. “It’s encouraging for the fans as well, we’re showing fight, and that’s all I ask of them.”

CATATROSPHIC

A catastrophic start with the ball saw Barbados race to 206 for six, anchored by Brandon King’s 73 and propelled by Sherfane Rutherford’s brutal 50 off 28 balls in the death overs.
“We wanted to start a little bit better as a bowling group,” Powell admitted. “We’ve been struggling a bit and not stringing consistently good overs together.”
The chase then unravelled with the Kingsmen slumping to eight runs for three wickets inside the first two overs, a deficit from which they somehow recovered, only to fall short despite Andre Russell’s heroics.
“If you’re three or four down in the powerplay, you generally go on to lose the game,” Powell said. 
“We lost wickets in clusters. Every time somebody gets out, another wicket follows. In T20 cricket, no matter who you have in your line-up, once you keep losing wickets in clusters you’re generally going to find yourself in trouble.”
OPTIMISM
Amid the Kingsmen’s disappointment, there were genuine reasons for optimism. 
Russell’s magnificent 68 off 38 balls, which carried him past 2,000 CPL runs, nearly pulled off the impossible, while young Vitel Lawes, with 32 off 20, and Keacy Carty, with 45 off 27, demonstrated maturity beyond their years.
“We thought it was our game, especially after it swung so much. 
“When it came down to the last two overs or so, we thought we were going to win. Having said that, credit has to be given to Barbados. Tonight they were the better team overall.”
The captain also praised the resilience of his younger players, noting that Lawes’ fearless hitting against Mujeeb ur Rahman, inclusive of three sixes in a single over, signals a bright future for the franchise.
“We have a lot of match winners. At some point in the game, I’m sure a lot of people thought we were down and out, but the guys showed courage, they showed fight.” 
Guyana Amazon Warriors will also arrive at Sabina Park with ambitions of getting off to a winning start in the CPL.
The Warriors boast a balanced attack featuring the spin of captain Imran Tahir and Khary Pierre, who are among the top spinners in the regional tournament.

PROLIFIC

They also have prolific batters Shai Hope, Glenn Phillips and Shimron Hetmyer, who can turn games on a dime with swashbuckling knocks.
For Powell, the remedy lies not in wholesale changes, but fine-tuning fundamentals.
“There’s work to be done in all three departments, from a batting standpoint, a bowling standpoint, and a fielding standpoint,” he said.
“We need to start better, we need to string those consistent overs together, and we need to avoid those clusters of wickets.”
The Kingsmen’s skipper remains convinced the breakthrough is imminent.
“We’ve got match winners throughout this line-up,” said Powell. “It’s just a matter of time before we get on the right side of one of these games.”