KYLE Mayers intends to come good with the bat to spur Barbados Royals to their third title when the 2022 Hero CPL final gets underway at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence tonight.
The Royals will face the Jamaica Tallawahs, also two-time champions who will also be gunning to lift the trophy for the third time.
The 30-year-old all-rounder, captain of the Royals is the leading scorer for his team with 337 runs including three half-centuries and a top score this season of 79.
However, his bat has gone cold since the teams arrived in Guyana. In three matches played at Providence, Mayers has had scores of 16, 0, and 26. He hopes to do better with the bat when he faces up to the Tallawahs’ bowling attack.
“I look forward to big games, like tomorrow’s. I am always one of those players who want to do well for the team, especially when it comes to championships time,” he said during a pre-match media conference yesterday.
“I always believe I am one of those players who can win a game for my team so I am looking forward.”
Addressing his current form, Mayers said he intends to have a reversal of fortune once the game begins.
“Since I came to Guyana, I haven’t been getting the scores I like but I look forward to tomorrow. It’s a different challenge, a different mindset. A trophy is on the line and I am happy to be able to contribute tomorrow if given the opportunity.”
The Royals captain said the team was happy to be able to get some rest following their victory in the first of the qualifiers against the Guyana Amazon Warriors on Monday.
“It’s been a long tournament, very jam-packed so the guys were very happy to win the qualifier and not play the extra game,” he said.
“We won the game and had some time to recover and focus on this game to come.”
Meanwhile, Jamaica Tallawahs skipper Rovman Powell said it would mean the world to him should he lead his side to the title.
The 29-year-old Powell is in his third season as captain but the previous two seasons did not go well for the soft-spoken Jamaican, losing in the semi-finals in 2020 and failing to advance to the playoffs in 2021.
During the 2022 season, the Tallawahs began well, winning their first three games before ending with a record of four wins, five losses and a no-result, but managed to make it into the playoffs where they defeated St Lucia Kings on Tuesday and then the dangerous Guyana Amazon Warriors by 37 runs in an exciting high-scoring encounter on Wednesday night to advance to the final.
Winning it would be really special, Powell said.
“It would mean the world to me. The past two seasons that I have captained the team, it hasn’t gone well for the franchise, so now for us to be in the final, for me to captain the team to the final and. maybe, a CPL championship would go well for me personally and go well for the franchise,” Powell said at the pre-final media conference.
“The Tallawahs hasn’t tasted victory for a few years,” he said of the franchise that last won the title in 2016. “We have sat down and said we are a better franchise than that; so hopefully, given the opportunity tomorrow (today) we will do our best to change that.”
Powell said the team is upbeat but taking it relatively easy on the eve of the final in preparation for the big game tonight.
“The guys are feeling really upbeat. Barbados are a very strong team, possibly the best team in the CPL so far, so the guys are upbeat about facing the challenge,” Powell said.
“The guys are looking forward to the championships. Today (yesterday) is a day when we just take it easy in a sense.
“We just came back down off the high of the game last night, put in a little bit of preparation, get in a little bit of rest and hopefully things go well tomorrow (today).” (SportsMax)