Tajinder Singh’s 62 and a dropped chance at long-on decide the CPL opener

The CPL came back on Friday night in St Vincent and took until the final delivery to produce a winner. Antigua and Barbuda Falcons needed two off the last ball at Arnos Vale, got them when Rovman Powell could not hold a mis-hit at long-on, and beat Jamaica Kingsmen by two wickets in the opening match of the season.

A new Jamaica team, and a middle order that stalled

Kingsmen were playing their first match as a franchise, the newest team in the league and Jamaica’s first since the Tallawahs went defunct in 2023. The shape of their innings will bother them more than the result did.

Reeza Hendricks was excellent early, 42 from 25 balls with four sixes, and 36 of the 54 runs in the powerplay were his. One over from Karima Gore went for 28. Then the innings stopped moving. Hendricks was out in the eighth over, and between overs seven and 16 the Kingsmen scored 59 runs. Powell, their captain, got to 47 but needed 37 balls for it. Andre Russell made eight from ten.

Keemo Paul hitting 16 off six at the death, and Hassan Khan’s unbeaten 10 from six, got them to 167 for 7. Alzarri Joseph took 3 for 34 and the Player-of-the-Match award, though the squeeze came from Jayden Seales and Usama Mir, who gave up 19 and 17 runs from their four overs each. Fourteen wides were the one blot on the Falcons’ night in the field.

Tajinder Singh, from Dholpur to Arnos Vale

Paul removed both Falcons openers inside seven overs, which brought Tajinder Singh in at 53 for 2. Indian readers may know the name. Tajinder Singh Dhillon was born in Dholpur, played 11 first-class matches for Rajasthan between 2017 and 2019, and now, at 34, turns out for the United States. This was his first CPL innings.

He reached 50 from 31 balls and added 64 for the third wicket with Tim Robinson, who made 40 from 30. With three overs left it was almost over. Falcons needed 20, had six wickets in hand and Tajinder was 56 not out. Paul’s over went for six and accounted for Gore. Russell’s went for eight, and Tajinder fell inside it too, caught behind for 62 from 37 balls.

Six were needed off the last over, bowled by Hunain Shah, the 22-year-old brother of Naseem Shah and one of seven Kingsmen players with Pakistan Super League ties. He had Jahmar Hamilton caught by Powell off the third ball and Usama Mir caught off the fourth. Two off one, and Hunain put the yorker where he meant to. Shamar Springer dug it out towards long-on, Powell got hands to it and did not hold on, and the batters came back for the second.

Two points, and six weeks to go

Falcons start with two points. Kingsmen go home to Kingston on 11 August with a middle order to sort out, and given the fixture list they have time to do it. The 14th CPL runs to 20 September across eight countries, with the top four going into playoffs at Kensington Oval in Barbados.

An opening night that came down to a fumble at long-on is a decent advert for what follows.

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