A nearly perfect chase from the St Lucia Kings on Thursday night resulted in the franchise picking up their first win at home, when they took on the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots at the Daren Sammy Stadium.
The home side called the toss correctly and opted to field first, after which the hapless Patriots, who have now slumped to their sixth loss of the season, posted 173-5.
Evin Lewis went early for 15, but two half-centuries in contrasting fashion from Andre Fletcher (62 off 50 balls) and Rilee Rossouw (50 off 31 balls) powered the Patriots to their total. A series of quick wickets at the end meant the likes of Josh Clarkson, Mikyle Louis and Wanindu Hasaranga would miss out on pushing the Patriots’ tally even further.
Then, St Lucia Captain Faf du Plessis and hometown hero Johnson Charles put on a masterclass on chasing. They constructed a 115-run partnership for the first wicket in just 11 overs.
After du Plessis perished for 62, Charles pressed on, but could not see the home side over the line.
Charles fell for 74 in the 16th over, with the Kings requiring just three more runs for victory.
Similarly to the Patriots, there was a series of quick wickets at the back end, but one decisive blow towards the boundary was all it took for Roston Chase to find the winning runs for the Kings.
“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,” Player of the Match Charles reflected after the match while praising the vociferous support of the Kings fans.
“It feels lovely, with the crowd supporting us, even when we lost two. A huge thank you to our supporters.”
The Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League will heat up this weekend in Barbados as the home team take on the Trinbago Knight Riders and Guyana Amazon Warriors back to back today, September 13 and Saturday, September 14 respectively. Both games will bowl off at 19:00h.
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