THE St Lucia Kings in their third appearance in a CPL final were rewarded with their first title when they achieved a six-wicket victory over the Guyana Amazon Warriors last night at the Providence Stadium.
Just over two months ago St Lucian sprinter Julian Alfred won Olympic gold in the 100 metres and silver in the 200 metres and last night the St Lucia Kings won their first title in the 12-year history of the CPL, beating the home side.
Despite a 37-run stand between Dwaine Pretorius (25 from 12 balls with two fours & two sixes) and Romario Shepherd (19 from 9 balls with two fours and one six), the Warriors were restricted to 138-8 as Shai Hope contributed 22.
Left-arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmad had 3-19 as the leading wicket-taker with 22 scalps for the Kings, who reached 139-4 from 18.1 overs.
Roston Chase and Bajan-born USA batter Aaron Jones joined forces with the Kings looking like paupers, precariously placed on 51-4 in the 10th over.
Roston Chase shared in an 88-run stand with Aaron Jones last night at Providence
The pair added 88 in an unbroken fifth-wicket partnership from 52 balls.
Chase made 39 from 22 balls with two fours and two sixes, while Jones scored 48 from 31 balls with two fours and four sixes.
When the Kings began their run-chase, Johnson Charles with 445 runs this season, was bowled by Shepherd for seven, 23-1 and when the ‘big fish,‘ skipper Faf du Plessis (21 with 2 fours & a six) was removed by Moeen Ali at 45-2, the Sea of Red in the stands erupted in ‘One Guyana’ precision.
Auguste (13) was bowled by Sinclair at 49-3 while Tim Seifert (3) was LBW to Dwaine Pretorius two runs later and the expectancy level of the Warriors lifting their second title after reaching the final on six previous occasions was getting stronger.
But Chase and Jones (48) took 27 off Ali in the 16th over,Pretorius’ 17th over cost 20 and Shepherd’s 18th over leaked 18, as both batters played positive cricket to take their team to victory with 12 balls to spare
Earlier, Rahmanullah Gurbaz used his feet to left-arm spinner Khary Pierre’s third ball of the innings, only to drill a catch to mid-on after failing to score, at 1-1.
The Warriors were off to an inauspicious start to the disappointment of the largest crowd for the Guyana leg of this year’s CPL.
Moeen Ali and Hope both struggled to get the ball away on a lightning-fast outfield against frugal bowling from Pierre and pacer Matthew Forde.
Hope released the pressure with a boundary off Pierre before edging Alzarri Joseph for four. He caressed Ahmad for consecutive boundaries to wake the capacity crowd from their early slumber.
Despite a glorious cover-driven boundary by Ali off Joseph, the Kings were in charge. After the six-over power play the Warriors had limped to 27-1
When Hope (22) missed a big swing off of off-spinner Roston Chase and Ali (14) hit Ahmad to short mid-wicket the Warriors were wobbling on the ropes at 45-3 in the ninth over.
Hetmyer, on the back of four 50s in this year’s CPL, got going with a humongous six off Chase and the roar of the fans in the stands reached a crescendo.
But after 10 overs the defending champions were on a tight leash at 49-3.
The situation worsened when Hetmyer, one of four senior players to opt out of the West Indies tour to Sri Lanka, fell to Ahmad to leave the score on 54-4.
Hetmyer, who ended with 403 runs, made 11 and his demise was greeted with joyous celebrations from the handful of Kings fans.
Kevin Sinclair (11) was stupendously taken at point by Ackeem Auguste off Forde as the Warriors slipped to 69-5.
An angry Sinclair threw his bat and gloves to the ground in disgust after he had departed the field.
Raymon Reifer with 35 runs from five matches and Keemo Paul, tried to revive the position before Paul (12) was removed by Joseph at 88-6.
Reifer, lucky to be in the team, was soon trapped LBW for 13 by Ahmad to leave the score on 97-7.
Pretorius took 15 from the penultimate over bowled by Joseph before David Wiese was blasted for successive fours off the blade of Shepherd before being hit for a six by Pretorius.
The pair put up a spirited rear guard fight-back before Pretorius fell to Wiese as the last two overs produced 36 runs which in the end proved crucial.
Not even an energised carnival-like half-time performance from local singers Calvin Burnette, Tamika Marshall, Vicadi Singh and Raymon Ramnarine could galvanise the fans to show off their dancing skills.
But when the dust had settled the Warriors’ fans mostly from North America, trailed out of Providence with great sadness on their faces, while nursing broken hearts.
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Publish date : 2024-10-06 19:20:00
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