St. Lucia Kings wins CPL final against GAW

St. Lucia Kings defeated the Guyana Amazon Warriors by six wickets to silence the crowd at the Guyana National Stadium in the CPL final on Oct. 6.

In pursuit of 139, Kings needed 66 runs off 30 deliveries to win, and in the 16th over spinner Moeen Ali leaked 27 runs as Roston Chase and Aaron Jones went crazy.

The runs continued to flow from Chase and Jones, stepping up after prolific batsmen Faf du Plessis with 21 and Johnson Charles on seven were out cheaply.

The attack by Chase and Jones, was magnificent as Kings closed on 139/4 in 18.1 overs. Jones struck 48 not out off 31 balls and Chase lashed 39 not out off 22 deliveries.

Before Jones and Chase took control of the contest, medium pacer Romario Shepherd removed Charles with only 23 runs on the board and then dismissed du Plessis as he was caught behind by wicket-keeper Shai Hope for 21 as Ali got the breakthrough.

Wickets continued to fall as Ackeem Auguste and Tim Seifert fell in quick succession to leave the Kings on 51/4 after 9.5 overs.

Jones and Chase then delivered a partnership of 88 runs.

Earlier, with Guyana batting first,  the Kings left-arm spinner Khary Pierre grabbed the wicket of the dangerous Rahmanullah Gurbaz in the first over, caught by skipper Faf du Plessis.

The Amazon Warriors batsmen were kept quiet in the opening overs by the Kings as the home team crawled to 7/1 after three overs.

In the fifth over, Shai Hope broke the shackles, hitting left-arm spinner Noor Ahmad for two fours, but after five overs Amazon Warriors were 23/1.

In the sixth over Moeen Ali joined smacked a delivery for four off Alzarri Joseph.

The wicket of Hope was lost in the next over as the right-hander was bowled by off spinner Roston Chase. Hope contributed 22 off 24 balls.

Ali’s wicket was next with 14 off 20 balls as he played a slog sweep straight into the hands of Johnson Charles  to give Ahmad the scalp. Amazon Warriors slipped to 45/3 after 8.3 overs.

Pierre, Ahmad and Chase all limited the batsmen grabbing one wicket apiece.

Shimron Hetmyer and Keemo Paul’s partnership was only worth nine as Hetmyer was caught for just 11 runs as Ahmad grabbed another wicket.

Kevin Sinclair was brilliantly caught by Ackeem Auguste leaving Warriors with the score 69/5 in the 14th over.

Wicket-keeper Tim Seifert then dive to complete a one-handed catch to dismiss Paul for 12 off 22 balls.

Dwaine Pretorius with 25 and Romario Shepherd on 19 not out came together smacking four fours and three sixes in the last few overs to steer Amazon Warriors to 138/8 in 20 overs. Ahmad troubled the Amazon Warriors batsmen with 3/19 in four overs.

2024 has been a great year for St Lucia in sports as the country has now claimed the Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League 2024 title after a 12-year wait. The win comes after women’s sprinter Julien Alfred won two medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics – the first medals for St Lucia in the history of the Olympics.

Kings coach Daren Sammy can now add a CPL title to his resume along with two T20 World Cup titles as a West Indies player.