Jamaica Tallawahs are favoured to secure win number two when they oppose the struggling St Lucia Stars in the seventh match of the 2018 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Twenty20 tournament at Sabina Park today.

First ball is scheduled for 6:00 pm.

The Tallawahs, currently in fourth place on two points, will be in good spirits for this the first of their back-to-back home games, following the heroics of explosive captain Andre Russell, whose spectacular batting and bowling in the first match gave them the perfect start to their campaign.

However, they will be mindful of the mistakes made in that four-wicket win over Trinbago Knight Riders as they depended heavily on Russell with both bat and ball to bail them out of what was really a substandard team performance.

After the bowling department gave away 223 runs to the Knight Riders, the Tallawahs’ top order crumbled quickly, leaving Russell with a superb unbeaten 121 and Kennar Lewis, who contributed a half-century, to restore pride.

On the other side of the table, St Lucia Stars, who are rooted at the bottom of the six-team table without a point having lost their two games thus far, will be hoping to register a maiden win and, by extension, signal their competitive nature for this season.

The Stars were bowled out for a mere 95 in their first match against the Knight Riders and then failed to chase 141 after being 113 for 2 in the 17th over against Guyana Amazon Warriors.

St Lucia Stars have now gone 13 matches without a win in the Caribbean Premier League with their lone point last year coming by virtue of a no result.

But cricket is a game of glorious uncertainty and despite the excellent form of Russell which makes a huge difference to Tallawahs’ chances, Head Coach Mark O’Donnell is aware that much improvement will be needed in both departments to shut the door on the opponents.

“Everyone is excited to be back at Sabina Park; we had a pretty special win on the road against Trinidad [Knight Riders] and it is nice to be here for a couple of games. We need to bat and bowl a bit better and we are very well aware of that but that was a pretty special innings the other night and we don’t get a lot of get-out-of-jail free cards and we have used up one of ours,” O’Donnell told journalists during a press briefing at Jamaica Pegasus yesterday.

Top order batsman Ross Taylor, who is representing the Jamaican franchise for the first time, believes batsmen need to be ruthless in their approach to keep the Tallawahs in the hunt for a third title.

“Ali [Khan] bowled well and put us under a bit of pressure but had the top order batted any longer then Russell wouldn’t have faced 40 odd balls.

“But I think we will get better in the top order, St Lucia has lost a couple of games and when you play a team that has lost a couple of games, it is very dangerous because they have nothing to lose. So we will have to play very well in the next game to put them under pressure,” the New Zealander noted.

The Jamaica Tallawahs have two of the best all-rounders – Russell and Rovman Powell – in the competition lending them super balance. And along with Taylor, Johnson Charles, Glenn Phillips, Andre McCarthy and Lewis, they are expected to prove a formidable force.

Meanwhile, the Stars with the big names of T20 cricket like captain Kieron Pollard, destructive Australian left-hander David Warner, Lendl Simmons, and Mitchell McClenaghan among others, have been experiencing a lean spell.

A lot rests on the aforementioned players to come good and give St Lucia Stars hope of finally establishing their mark in the tournament.

“We haven’t won in two games; this is a new season, this is not 2017, we don’t live based on the past, we live in the present and we move forward. Yes, we have not started out pretty well, we got a rollicking in Trinidad, but I think we improved in all facets of the game and that is positive and we are getting closer.

“So hopefully we can defeat Dre Russ [Andre Russell] and his team at home. The guys are upbeat and I think that last game gave us that extra belief and confidence that we can make that push and play a good 40 overs of cricket and hopefully break that jinx and win our first game this season,” Pollard shared.

Teams: Jamaica Tallawahs — Jermaine Blackwood, Adam Zampa, Andre Russell (c), Imad Wasim, David Miller, Ross Taylor, Rovman Powell, Samuel Badree, Kemar Roach, Glenn Phillips, Andre McCarthy, Krishmar Santokie, Johnson Charles, Steven Taylor, Kennar Lewis, Steven Jacobs, Oshane Thomas, Kirsten Kallicharan, Elmore Hutchinson.

St Lucia Stars — Lendl Simmons, Kieron Pollard (c), David Warner, Darren Sammy, Andre Fletcher, Mitchell McClenaghan, Kesrick Williams, Niroshan Dickwella, Rahkeem Cornwall, Qais Ahmad, Kavem Hodge, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Christopher Lamont, Obed McCoy, Odean Smith, Jaskaran Malhotra, Mark Chapman, Mohammad Sami.