Andre Russell hits 68 with nine sixes and no fours, and Jamaica still lose by five
Daniel Sams took 4 for 20 and the Kingsmen were 8 for 3 in the second over at Sabina Park. Russell’s nine sixes carried them to 201, five short of Barbados.
Andre Russell walked out at Sabina Park with his side 60 for 5 and a required rate climbing past 12. He hit nine sixes, did not hit a single four, and still finished on the losing side. Barbados Tridents beat Jamaica Kingsmen by five runs overnight in Kingston.
Sams had the game won inside two overs
Chasing 207, the Kingsmen were 8 for 3 after nine balls. Chris Green bowled Shayan Jahangir with the third ball of the innings, then Daniel Sams bowled Reeza Hendricks and Kirk McKenzie in the space of three deliveries. The powerplay brought 36 runs and three wickets.
Sams finished with 4 for 20 from his four overs, 13 of the 24 balls dot balls, and took the player-of-the-match award. Green’s two for 27 was the other end of a home chase that never had a settled partnership until it was far too late.
King and Rutherford had built the total
Barbados made 206 for 3 after being put in. Brandon King anchored it with 73 off 51, five fours and four sixes, and was caught and bowled by Russell off the fifth ball of the twentieth over with the score on 205. Zachary Carter had struck at 180 for his 27 off 15, Quinton de Kock made 42 off 25, and Sherfane Rutherford finished unbeaten on 50 off 28.
Sixty-seven came in the powerplay for one wicket. Mujeeb Ur Rahman went for 50 in his four overs and Gudakesh Motie for 53 in his, which is not the ratio Jamaica had in mind when they chose to field.
Russell got them to the last over anyway
Keacy Carty made 45 off 27 and Rovman Powell 38 off 24, but the innings kept losing wickets at the other end. Russell reached fifty off 27 balls with seven sixes, then kept going. He and Vitel Lawes put on 50 in 28 balls for the eighth wicket, and Jamaica went past 200 in the twentieth over with the game genuinely live.
Russell fell for 68 off 38 in that final over, caught by Rivaldo Clarke off Ramon Simmonds. Lawes was run out for 32 next ball. Nine wickets down, five runs short.
Two matches, two of the tightest finishes in the tournament
This was the Kingsmen’s first home match since the franchise joined the league, and their second defeat in a week decided in the last over. On 7 August in Kingstown, Antigua and Barbuda Falcons chased them down with two wickets and no balls to spare.
The new Jamaica side sit bottom with nothing from two, which reads worse than they have played. The Tridents are second, one win from one, and a Russell innings away from an entirely different table.