Three losses on the trot but Antigua will have a couple days' break to recover. Royals will have a longer break as they return on the sixth. For now, they'll look to stay fresh as they were today. St Kitts and Nevis Patriots play St Lucia Kings later tonight, join us for that. Thanks for tuning in here.
Rovman Powell, Royals captain: Good to start the CPL campaign the way we did. Bowlers justified the decision at the toss. QDK and Cornwall are great. Guys looked sharp and ready in the first game, which doesn't always happen. It's great. Once we have Quinny in our team, it gets better. Want youngsters to pick his brain.
Chris Green, Falcons captain: We were outplayed in all facets. They took the game away from us. Sometimes you gotta tip your hat and say well played. We've got seven games more, long time left. Gotta up our game and make more impetus with bat. Not panic station, gotta front up and play passionate and aggressive cricket. Parents are loving it, had a hit of golf. They've loved the atmosphere.
Quinton de Kock, POTM: We didn't have a big total, knew it was a good wicket, so wanted to give Jimbo the strike and capitalise myself in one of the overs. Wanted to get the odd boundary, rotate strike and bat normally. (Rahkeem) It's only our first game, bats with a lot of flare and takes the game forward. He can do all the hard work after getting him on strike. Hope that continues.
1:20pm: Hugs between the batters. Falcons suffered close losses in their first two games but get thumped here. McCoy, Holder and Theekshana set it up for Royals. De Kock and Cornwall launched away in the powerplay. James dropped de Kock with the score on 38 for 0, that was the only chance, ended up being very expensive. 76 runs off six overs and there was no coming back for Falcons. There was a minor rain break, during which Curtly Ambrose looked livid. But nothing that the bowlers tried seemed to come off. De Kock and Carty were happy to bide time and secure the win rather than going for an NRR boost. But it has gone up to 2.6 after doing it with 27 balls to spare.
END OF OVER:15 | 10 Runs | BR: 136/1 (10 runs required from 30 balls, RR: 9.06, RRR: 2.00)
- Quinton de Kock77 (43b)
- Shamarh Brooks20 (27b)
- Imad Wasim3-0-21-1
- Mohammad Amir3-0-31-0
Around
END OF OVER:14 | 7 Runs | BR: 126/1 (20 runs required from 36 balls, RR: 9.00, RRR: 3.33)
- Quinton de Kock71 (40b)
- Shamarh Brooks17 (24b)
- Mohammad Amir3-0-31-0
- Hayden Walsh3-0-21-0
Albert K gets straight to the heart of the issue -: "ABF can't make runs or take wickets."
Partnership on a run-a-ball 39. Will Royals look to accelerate now? Amir returns
END OF OVER:13 | 11 Runs | BR: 119/1 (27 runs required from 42 balls, RR: 9.15, RRR: 3.85)
- Quinton de Kock66 (36b)
- Shamarh Brooks16 (22b)
- Hayden Walsh3-0-21-0
- Chris Green4-0-27-0