The four teams to make the playoffs of the 2024 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) may have been decided but that did not stop the Barbados Royals and St Lucia Kings slugging it out in Providence with bragging rights and momentum all to be played for.
With five wins out of seven games and two losses to tie for tenth position, both teams have secured their spots in the 2024 CPL Playoffs alongside the Guyana Amazon Warriors and the Trinbago Knight Riders. Prior to the game, only the NRR separated them.
Rovman Powell, the captain of the Royals, won the toss and decided to field first, but his bowlers didn’t have the same impact as they had earlier in the tournament. However, as the Kings chipped away, Royals wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock showed off his lightning-fast hands to dismiss Faf du Plessis and Roston Chase, who were both stumped out by Maharaj and Theekshana, respectively.
With 53 runs off 42 balls, Johnson Charles scored the most, followed by Ackeem Auguste with 35 off 32 before the latter was forced to retire injured. Charles used several powerful sweep smashes to clear the boundary rope. After that, Tim Seifert hit a flurry of late boundaries to lead the Kings to their highest point total in this year’s play at Providence (162/3), which would require some chasing.
Wiese maintained his composure to help Kings win by 13 runs
The Royals’ brilliant batting lineup responded with a bang, reaching 56 off 13 balls when Alzarri Joseph removed the dangerous de Kock for 22 off just 13 balls. Actually, Kadeem Alleyne had been the primary aggressor for the Royals, especially in the third over when he hit Roston Chase with three straight sixes. Then, the Kings retaliated by acquiring Rahkeem Cornwall and Rovman Powell at a low cost.
The Royals needed to score 63 runs off the final 36 balls after Noor Ahmed pieced together a maiden to an increasingly irritated David Miller in the 14th over, which saw the Royals reach 100/4.
Miller made up for his poor strike rate in the next over by bunting two boundaries, but as the necessary runs per over increased, he was caught at cover by du Plessis for 21 off 22 balls while attempting to reach the fence once more.
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With Jason Holder and Maheesh Theekshana at the crease, the Royals needed 21 runs off the last over after Alick Athanaze and Nyeem Young both fell in the latter stages of the game. Holder was put on strike by Theekshana’s first ball single, and the Royals were able to stay in the game with a subsequent edge for four. Then, as Holder holed out to Khary Pierre on the long off boundary, David Wiese made the vital discovery.
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