Saint Lucia Kings win the CPL for the first time in their history

An 11-year-long wait has finally come to an end as, for the first time in their history, Saint Lucia Kings have won the Caribbean Premier League (CPL). They triumphed over defending champions Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAW) on October 6 (Sunday) to become the fifth team to win the CPL. 

Formerly known as the St Lucia Zouks, the Saint Lucia Kings entered Sunday’s final as the only long-standing original franchise never to have won the CPL. They had an impressive showing in CPL 2023, finishing third, but got knocked out in the Eliminator by the now-defunct Jamaica Tallawahs. 

However, a sensational fifth-wicket stand in the second innings between Roston Chase (39*) and Aaron Jones (48*) powered the Kings to their first-ever title.

On the night, after winning the toss and bowling, Saint Lucia had control of the game till the 19th over of the first innings with Guyana’s score reading 102/7 after 18 overs. However, the Kings leaked 36 runs off the final two overs of the innings as the Warriors ended up posting 138. 

In the chase, the Kings were in all sorts near the halfway point, reeling at 51/4 in 9.5 overs, having lost each of their Top 4 batters, including skipper Faf du Plessis. This is when Chase and Jones got together and hammered 88 runs off just 8.2 overs to take the Kings to the finish line with 11 balls to spare.

At one point, 66 was needed off 30 balls, but the pair took 47 runs across the 16th and 17th overs of the chase to bring it down to 19 off 18 balls, after which they strolled towards the target.

It was a sort of anti-climax as the final ended with Imran Tahir bowling a wide. 

“It has been special. We have been really consistent throughout the competition. A superb final, we had a lot of ebbs and flows, at one stage I thought it is time to go pack our bags. But right through the tournament we kept saying that we believe a lot in the depth of the squad,” SLK skipper du Plessis said after the contest.

While Chase was named Player of the Match, Noor Ahmad, who topped the wicket-taking charts in CPL 2024 with 22 wickets at an economy of 6.19, was named the Player of the Series. 

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