SAINT Lucia Kings switched gears in the second match of this season’s CPLT20 tournament, beating the Barbados Royals convincingly on Thursday night at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground [DSCG], after losing to Jamaica Tallawahs in their opening fixture the night before.
While the Kings’ batters fell short of their target in the first game on Wednesday night, they powered on to a massive score of 201/6 after taking first knock on Thursday. Then their bowlers came into play to snuff out any chance of a successful chase from the Royals.
In contrast to Wednesday’s opening game, Thursday saw the Kings owning that encounter from start to finish to the delight of their home crowd.
The Kings, Thursday night, got a dream start by dismissing Cornwall early. The game was won in the powerplay, as Royals lost five wickets in quick succession which proved to be the major turning point in the match.
Young seamer Mathew Forde was on fire with his ‘fiery pace’ and delivered a menacing spell of bowling, prising out three wickets in the powerplay and causing lots of panic in the Royals’ ranks. The Powell-led side succumbed to the pressure from the scoreboard and could never recover from the early setback.
Kings used six other bowlers, with West Indies front-line seamer Alzarri Joseph 1/21 putting on a bouncy spell. The other bowlers each chipped in with a wicket to derail the Royals chase, despite Nyeem Young’s valiant 48 towards the end, which helped reduce the blow to their net run rate.
Earlier, skipper Faf du Plessis (46) and ‘home-boy’ West Indies player Johnson Charles (30) set the stadium alight with a pulverizing 61-run opening partnership.
Zimbabwean Sean Williams then came to the party and beefed up the innings with a smashing 47, coming in with the score at 2/65.
Saint Lucian player Shadrack Descarte, one of the four locals on the Kings squad, alongside coach Daren Sammy, had a brief debut performance hitting a boundary off the first ball he faced, but unluckily off the next ball, he fell to a catch on the boundary as he attempted to pile on the aggression.
Sikandar Raza 23 and Roshon Primus 21 put in some good cameos down the order to boost the score.
West Indies all-rounder Jason Holder reined in with a good bowling spell to claim 4/38. He led the attack for the Royals.
But eventually, when it all mattered the Kings marched on triumphantly – to set the stage for their remaining two matches at the DSCG, with the fans and supporters eagerly awaiting to cheer on their team with prospects of more victories.
On Wednesday, Tallawahs posted a total of 187/10 (20 overs) with skipper Brandon King leading the charge with a masterful knock 81 (53), and Kirk Mc Kenzie 20 (11). Roston Chase was the Kings’ most successful bowler and bagged 3/39 (4), while Joseph took 2/21(4).
Kings failed to set a solid platform for the run chase and were down 3/90 (11.1overs) when Chase 53 (31) came to the crease and in the company of Primus 37 (20) put on a partnership of 61 (28) as they attempted to overhaul the target. Both batters fell in the final over with 19 runs needed as they valiantly attempted to chase down the score.
Imad Wasim claimed 3/27 (4), and Chris Green 2/28 (4) to stall the Kings’ chase.
Tonight, the Kings play Guyana Amazon Warriors and on Sunday the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots.