Rapid fifties from Johnson Charles and Faf du Plessis set up a comfortable win for Saint Lucia Kings against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, who slipped to their sixth successive loss. Needing 174 for victory, Kings raced to the target in 16.3 overs thanks to Johnson Charles‘s 42-ball 74 (4 fours, 7 sixes) and his 115-run opening stand with Faf du Plessis, who struck a 31-ball 62 which included five fours and as many sixes. The six-wicket win with 21 deliveries to spare gave Kings a net run rate boost as they moved up to the third spot on the points table.
Kings captain Faf du Plessis won the toss and inserted the opposition hoping that the ball would skid on and be easier to hit in the second half of the match. The short square boundaries in Gros Islet saw 30 sixes hit in the last match at the ground but the Patriots struggled to clear the ropes in their innings – not until Rilee Rossouw plundered fives sixes did their batting card catch light and gain any real momentum. Captain Andre Fletcher top scoring with 62 off 50 balls to anchor the Patriots to 173/5.
Pitch and Report
192 was the average first innings total here in the recently concluded T20 World Cup. It’s a high-scoring venue. A really good surface. The bowlers have something in it as well. It’s going to be an entertaining clash, reckons Samuel Badree.
St Lucia Kings skipper Faf Du Plessis won the toss and chose to field with David Wiese included in the playing XI. St Kitts and Nevis Patriots skipper Andre Fletcher batting first included Tabraiz Shamsi and Johann Layne included in Playing XI.
Andre Fletcher and Rilee Rossouw smash half-centuries for St Kitts & Nevis Patriots
The Patriots posted a total of 173 runs for 5 wickets in their 20 overs. Andre Fletcher was the standout performer with the bat, scoring 62 runs off 50 balls, including 5 fours and 2 sixes. Rilee Rossouw contributed significantly as well with a brisk 50 runs off 31 balls, hitting 5 sixes.
Earlier, after being asked to bat, Andre Fletcher and Evin Lewis got the Patriots off to a positive start. Fletcher was the more aggressive of the two, striking two sixes and four fours inside the powerplay, while Lewis hit a couple of boundaries, as the openers helped their team past the 50 in the first six overs. Descarte ended the opening stand by getting Lewis to play a cut shot straight to point.
Mayers struck a four and a six off Descarte but fell soon after, bowled by Chase. Rilee Rossouw got going with a six in the same over, helping the Patriots to 82/2 at the halfway stage.
A 70-run partnership between Rossouw and Fletcher ensued, with the South African scoring the bulk of the runs. Rossouw’s six off Noor Ahmad helped Patriots past 100 in the 13th over, soon after which Fletcher brought up a 40-ball half-century. But there were a couple of quiet overs, leaving the Patriots at 112/2 after 15 overs. Rossouw gave them the much-needed boost with a couple of sixes off Descarte, followed by a maximum of Alzarri Joseph.
Fletcher, however, was dismissed in the same over, and Rossouw was dismissed by David Wiese soon after bringing up a 30-ball fifty. Wiese, though, was guilty of conceding plenty of wides in the penultimate over and was also hit for a six by Mikyle Louis. Joseph gave away only five runs in the last over, ensuring the Patriots didn’t get close to the 180 mark.
From the bowling side, Alzarri Joseph was impressive for the Kings, taking 2 wickets for 38 runs in his 4 overs. Roston Chase, David Wiese and Sadrack Descartes also chipped in with a wicket each, helping restrict the Patriots to a manageable total.
Johnson Charles and Faf du Plessis steer Kings to a comfortable win over Patriots
It wasn’t enough. Du Plessis was brutal in the PowerPlay for the Kings, hitting five fours and the same number of sixes to get the chase off to a breezy start from which his side never looked back. Fellow opener Johnson Charles played a fluent and match winning hand with 74 off 42 balls, falling to Hasaranga only when the target was in single digits.
Chasing 174 runs, the Kings achieved their target comfortably, finishing at 176 runs for 5 wickets in just 16.3 overs. Johnson Charles led the charge with a blistering 74 runs off 42 balls, which included 4 fours and an impressive 7 sixes. Faf du Plessis also played a pivotal role, scoring 62 runs off 31 balls with 5 fours and 5 sixes. The opening duo added 115 runs for the first wicket in just 10.4 overs and laid the foundation of their team’s victory.
Du Plessis got the Kings going in the chase with a boundary off Kyle Mayers in the opening over before Johnson Charles struck two sixes off Johann Layne. Du Plessis then shifted to a higher gear, hitting two fours off Mayers and two sixes off Veerasamy Permaul, and Johnson Charles also scored a boundary off the spinner, helping the Kings bring up 50 in only four overs. The assault continued as Faf du Plessis’s six off Anrich Nortje was followed by a four and two maximums for Charles off Layne, helping the Kings race away to 72/0 in the powerplay.
Milestones were up next as Charles became the first to cross 3000 runs in the CPL, following which Faf du Plessis’s successive sixes off Permaul helped him register a 25-ball fifty. The Permaul over also included two fours, with 22 coming off it, as the Kings crossed 100 inside nine overs, with Faf du Plessis and Johnson Charles registering the first 100-run opening stand for the Kings since 2019. The chase was completely in Kings’ control by the time the 10th over was completed, with them reaching 113/0 and needing only 61 off 60 balls.
Johnson Charles got to a 33-ball fifty in the 11th over but the opening partnership came to an end soon after as du Plessis chased a wide delivery from Josh Clarkson and edged it to the ‘keeper. Tim Seifert hit a six and a four off Tabraiz Shamsi to get off to a quick start but his outing was cut short when he failed to clear the boundary ropes off Clarkson. In the same over, Johnson Charles clubbed two more sixes and then Bhanuka Rajapaksa struck a maximum off Shamsi.
He also got an lbw decision overturned before Johnson Charles hit a six off the wrist spinner. Rajapaksa, though, had to depart in the next over when he handed a catch back to Nortje while Wanindu Hasaranga ended Johnson Charles’s entertaining knock and also picked up the wicket of Sadrack Descarte. But the wickets came a little too late as Roston Chase struck the winning boundary to take the team over the line in the 17th over.
The Patriots’ bowling struggled to contain the Kings, with Wanindu Hasaranga taking 2 wickets for 13 runs in 3 overs, while Josh Clarkson also claimed 2 wickets for 18 runs. However, the Kings’ aggressive batting proved too much for the Patriots.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Andre Fletcher the loosing skipper said : We started well in the powerplay and I thought we slowed down a bit in the middle. Our strike rate could have been better, especially me. But Rilee played a good knock. (On Layne) With his height and pace, he is very effective with the new ball. Unfortunately, it was not his day today. We have three more games left. We don’t have a choice but to go out there and play cricket.
We have to find a way to win. We have been on the losing side for six games and we have to try our best. (Next game against Royals) We played them at home – they will come hard at us. We have to believe in ourselves and try to execute as well as possible, with the bat, the ball and in the field.
Faf Du Plessis the winning skipper said : (On the performance) It was really good. Great bowling performance from our guys. 170 feels 20 short on this wicket. (On Descarte and Wiese’s catches) Great catches – the boys have been catching well. These catches are really important (against guys that can hurt you). (On their intent in the powerplay) Really important to put the pressure on the bowlers (at the start). Chasing 170, you can break the back of the opposition when you do that.
Glad we could do it. Important that one guy also bats through and Charles did that beautifully. We turned it around nicely tonight. Important after two back-to-back losses. We wanted to give the fans something to smile about and glad we could do that (tonight).
Johnson Charles the Player of the match for his innings said : It was a very good innings. I would have loved to finish off for the team. Opening with Faf has been good. We feed off each other’s energy. (On the people dancing in the Johnson Charles Stand) It feels lovely, with the crowd supporting us, even when we lost two. A huge thank you to our supporters.
A slight hiccup towards the end for the Kings as the game dragged out an extra over or two but they get through to an important win. They were never in trouble during this chase. Both Faf and Charles were free flowing. They struck them to all parts and Faf was the first of the two to bring up fifty.
They shared a century stand and the game was pretty much over by the 10th over. Still, they lost a few wickets post that trying to get to the total quickly but most of the job had been done by the openers. The Patriots weren’t on the money with the ball, there were plenty of poor deliveries and they went the distance tonight.
The Kings did it at a canter really. Charles and du Plessis set it all up in the powerplay, coming out all guns blazing. The Kings skipper, in particular, was severe during the field restrictions and did not hold back once they were lifted either. Charles then took over completely and finished with a 42-ball 74, falling only when single-digits were required.
Another indifferent night with the ball for the Patriots. Their planning was off and their execution was not great either. Fletcher’s decision-making was also not up to scratch and his decision to hold back Hasaranga and Shamsi, even as the Kings made merry in the powerplay, was puzzling, to say the least. That perhaps sums up their campaign, which now hangs by a thread, with their qualification in tatters and possibly at the mercy of others.