Powell urges patience with young Royals

GROS ISLET, St Lucia,

(CMC). New Barbados Royals captain, Rovman Powell, has urged patience with his young side after they suffered a chastening 54-run defeat to St Lucia Kings.

Chasing 202 at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground on Thursday night, Royals produced an inept batting effort to collapse to 147 all out, in their opening fixture of the Caribbean Premier League.

At one stage, they were tottering on 21 for four in the third over but 22-year-old Nyeem Young blasted a top score of 48 off 39 balls after arriving at number eight, to add some respectability to the total.

“We have to keep on improving. If we can improve in the batting, bowling and fielding that would do us well,” said Powell, in his first year as Royals captain after leading Jamaica Tallawahs to last year’s title.

“You know, it’s a young team and as a young team, you’re going to need just a little bit of time – a little bit of time to get it right. Hopefully the next game can go better.”

Royals had their top order decimated by lively pacer Matthew Forde, the 21-yearold right-armer snatching three of the first four wickets to fall.

Rahkeem Cornwall was run out off the first ball of the chase before Forde bowled both Justin Greaves (0) and Kevin Wickham (10), and then finished off an outstanding spell by having Powell taken in the deep, also without scoring.

Powell said he had warned his side about the critical nature of the opening power-play.

“With a 200-run target at the half-way stage, I said to them we cannot win the game a £60m transfer from RB Leipzig - and Japan midfielder Wataru Endo, who moved in a £19m deal from Stuttgart on Friday and looked neat and tidy when he came on in the second half after the Argentine's dismissal.

However, two of Klopp's key midfield targets - Moises Caicedo and Romeo Laviahave chosen to join Chelsea from Brighton and Southampton respectively, leaving Klopp light on central midfielders.

Nevertheless, Liverpool have four points from their opening two matches and their excellent run at Anfield continued - they have now gone 13 Premier League matches since they lost at home, when Leeds United beat them in October 2022.

Bournemouth were a lively presence if a little open and Liverpool threatened to run away with the match after the Diaz and Salah goals settled them down.

Trent Alexander-Arnold, on his 200th Premier League appearance, had a shot saved while new captain Virgil van Dijk headed wide and the impressive Szoboszlai saw an effort deflected off-target.

That pressure was maintained at the start of the second half as Jota shot wide when Neto had headed outside of his penalty area, and Salah fired at the goalkeeper from a tight angle.

Mac Allister's red card in the 58th minute threatened to change the direction of the match and give Bournemouth hope of winning at Anfield for the first time.

However, the south coast side's hopes were quickly dashed four minutes later when Jota pounced after Neto could not gather Szoboszlai's strike.

Despite a late flurry from the visitors that saw Alisson make fine saves to deny substitutes Justin Kluivert and Hamed Traore, Liverpool claimed a deserved three points.(BBC Sport).

Hibbert comfortably through to men’s triple jump final at World Championships

in the power-play; we only can lose it in the power-play and I think we did exactly that,” said the Jamaican, recently appointed West Indies Twenty20 skipper.

“I think when you look back on it, young Nyeem Young had a good game –that is one of the positives that we can take from it.”

Royals’ malaise started from the time they were asked to bowl, conceding 65 runs in the first power-play and then watching as Zimbabwean Seam Williams (47), captain Faf du Plessis (46) and opener Johnson Charles (30) all played key roles with the bat.

“It was a tough one. I think we didn’t stick to our plans as a bowling unit to start off with and as a batting unit, to lose four or five [wickets] in the power-play we were always going to be behind the game.”

Royals face Tallawahs in their second game at the same venue this morning.

TEENAGE sensation, Jaydon Hibbert, safely advanced to the final of the men’s triple jump on day one of the IAAF World Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Saturday.

The 18-year-old NCAA Indoor and Outdoor champion and record holder opened his qualifying series with a 16.99 effort before booking his spot in the final with a massive 17.70m in the second round.

That distance is the fourth furthest jump in the world this year and the second furthest of his career, trailing only his world leading and world junior record of 17.87m, done at the SEC Outdoor Championships in May.

Hibbert will enter Monday's final as one of the big favorites for gold, especially after the withdrawal of Olympic champion, Pedro Pablo Pichardo, on the eve of the championships. (Sportsmax)