Saint Lucia Kings earned an emphatic win over St. Lucia. Kitts/Nevis Patriots in a Hero CPL T20 match, played at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground. [DSCG]on Sunday, to conclude their campaign at the premises this season.
The Kings won two and lost two of the games played in the DSCG, to finish with a somewhat balanced performance.
On Sunday, the Kings reached the score of 161/9 as taken the previous day (Saturday) against the Guyana Amazon Warriors after being dispatched on both occasions.
The Kings got off to another bright start as home boy Johnson Charles 41 (32) and skipper Faf Du Plessis set a platform at 1/86, before Charles departed in the ninth over.
But in a very similar fashion to Saturday, the Kings’ middle order batting faltered again.
After a solid opening stand, the next good partnership was a stand of 22 (17) between Charles and David Wiese. The Patriots hit back at the Kings as wickets fell at will, and when Du Plessis fell in the 13th over, the slide continued.
In the process, the Kings lost 6/37, with South African all-rounder Dwain Pretorius the pick of the balls with figures of 3/37 (4) .
However, with the raucous fans coming in support, the Kings fought back to beat the Patriots for a narrow 100 (19) and a 61 run victory.
Matthew Forde, 20, a Barbadian player of Saint Lucian origin produced a brilliant bowling effort at 19/3 (4) to take three crucial wickets to remove the dangerous top order which included captain Evin Lewis and Andrew Fletcher.
Forde’s three early scalps set the pace; as Wiese 3/17 (4) was among the wickets while Alzarri Joseph and Roshon Primus shared two wickets each. Tim David who failed with the bat was excellent in the field and took five catches.
Joseph was in a no-nonsense mood and constantly roughed up the opposition batsmen, including the wicket of Daren Bravo, as he unleashed another fiery spell of bowling.
In a more intriguing turn of events, fans in the Charles Johnson Stand were kept on their feet for the duration of that time; and young Forde responded by running to the JC stand every time he took a wicket.
Last Saturday’s game was quite disappointing for the Kings and their fans. The Kings got off to a great start as Charles 87*(59) 6×4, 5×6 and Du Plessis 31(20) 4×6 put on some ‘fireworks’ in the opening overs to be 1/93 (8.1 ) . But another middle-order collapse saw the Kings pile up on 161/7, with Tim David’s 23 (17) next in the innings.
Tabraiz Shamsi’s combined spin bowling 2/14 (4) and
Imran Tahir 1/26 (4) conceded just 40 runs in 8 overs, with 3 wickets between them to keep the Kings batting in check.
The batsmen batted calmly and were able to put together some good partnerships. Heinrich Klaasen 61(46) and skipper Shimron Hetymer 32 (21) kept the runs flowing to help their team claim their first win in the series.
As the rest of the series moves to Trinidad and Tobago – the Kings next play STKP on Saturday at 10am
The Kings will definitely need to retool their middle-order batting to be better able to contend with their opponents as they enter a crucial stage of the tournament.
Meanwhile, Saint Lucia Kings have used England batsman Adam Hose as a replacement for Tim David, who will make his T20I debut for Australia in India later this month ahead of the World Cup. Hose, 29 made 557 runs at 55.70 and a strike rate of 160.98 in this year’s T20 Blast and also had a strong century for the Northern Superchargers.
Meanwhile, cricket analysts say the tournament is ‘open’ and interestingly at this stage with the points standing as follows;
Barbados Royals – Matches – 5, Points – 10,
Jamaica Tallawahs – 5, 6,
Saint Lucia Kings – 6, 4,
St Kitts / Nevis Patriots – 6, 4,
Guyana Amazon Warriors – 4, 3,
Trinbago Knight Riders – 4, 3.
