Barbados Royals and former West Indies T20 captain Rovman Powell’s gamble to hand Sherfane Rutherford the last over during the CPL 2025 match against Antigua and Barbuda Falcons on Friday (October 5) backfired.
Antigua & Barbuda Falcons pip Barbados Royals in CPL thriller
Batting first, the Royals scored 187-4, spearheaded by Brandon King's unbeaten 98 off 65 balls. The match went down to the wire, with the Falcons needing 12 runs from the final over. Two frontline bowlers, Jomel Warrican (0-21 from 2 overs) and Chris Green (0-11 from 1 over), still had overs remaining. Surprisingly, Royals captain Powell gave the ball to Rutherford for his first over of the day. The risk didn't pay off.
Rutherford, bowling medium pace, began disastrously by bowling three wides in his first four attempts. Imad Wasim managed to score two runs off the only legal delivery in that sequence.
The next three balls yielded a double and two singles, but a wicket fell on the penultimate ball. Imad Wasim flicked a full, straight delivery onto his pad and, while attempting a second run, fell short of his crease.
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This left the equation at two runs needed off the final ball for the Falcons to win. With No.8 Shamar Springer, new to the crease, they managed to cross the line. He pulled a short-of-a-length ball towards mid-wicket and scrambled back for a second run to seal a thrilling victory. Andries Gous remained unbeaten on 85 off 53, doing the bulk of the scoring.
Match 22, Barbados Royals vs Antigua & Barbuda Falcons
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This was only the 24th instance of Rutherford rolling his arm over in 212 T20 matches. He had not bowled in this competition earlier this year, with his last bowling outing coming in a T20I for West Indies against England in June, where he took 1-20 from two overs. He has bowled at least two overs in a match on eleven occasions, with three instances of bowling his full quota. His best figures of 3-19 came in the 2020 Bangladesh Premier League.
Powell: Couldn't bowl one of my spinners in the last over
At the post-match presentation ceremony, Powell revealed his reasoning for giving the last over to Rutherford: "I couldn't put one of my spinners in the last over as a left-hander was batting.
"So I couldn't bring back Warrican, and Chris Green wasn't having a good night. So I just decided to introduce somebody new. Whatever happens, happens in that little five-minute period."
The Royals stumbled to their fifth loss in six matches and are teetering at the bottom of the points table with just a single point, which came from a washout. The Falcons, meanwhile, are in third place with nine points, having won four of their nine matches, with one game washed out.
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