RBCPL2024: Lewis ton in vain, St Lucia Kings trump Patriots’ 201 in St Kitts

How does a team make over 200 runs on consecutive nights in a Twenty/20 game and end up on the losing side?

Just ask captain Andre “Spiceman” Fletcher and his St Kitts and Nevis Patriots outfit.

After defeating new Republic Bank CPL franchise Antigua and Barbuda Falcons in the first game of the 2024 season in a last-ball thriller at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua on Thursday night, STKNP managed to score 206 for 8 versus Trinbago Knight Riders and 201 for 3 versus St Lucia Kings.

But Fletcher’s team was left cursing their luck after both matches.

A hitting onslaught from Nicholas Pooran and Keacy Carty put the Patriots to the sword on Saturday night as TKR posted a mammoth 250 for 4.

And on Sunday night, when the pair of Evin Lewis (100*, 54b, 7×4, 9×6) and Kyle Mayers (92, 62, 6×4, 7×6) should have been celebrating their record-breaking CPL stand of 199, sloppy fielding and ordinary bowling worked against the Patriots—allowing the Kings to comfortably chase down a 202-run target inside 18 overs at Warner Park in Basseterre.

Twenty-four hours after his fellow Trinbagonian Pooran came within three runs of the first CPL 100 of the season, an elated Lewis reached the milestone. He punched a delivery from seamer David Wiese down the field for a single in the final over of the Patriots innings to get his second-ever century in the competition.

That happened midway through the final over, just about an hour after a shower halted play in the penultimate over. No overs were lost—momentum, arguably, was, the break taking the sting out of the home team’s charge.

Sitting pretty on 198 for one after 18.5 overs as the covers came on, the Patriots scored just three runs from the last seven balls after the resumption.

Wiese, who has a proud record of five-wicket hauls in T20s,  removed both Mayers, caught on the cover boundary, and would-be scooper Sherfane Rutherford, bowled for a golden duck.

Kings skipper Faf du Plessis felt this passage of play shifted the momentum in his team’s favour.

The Kings, beaten by the Patriots in the 2021 final, had a dreadful start to the powerplay as du Plessis (2), Johnson Charles (12), Ackeem Auguste (6) and Roston Chase (4) all fell cheaply to leave their team on 24 for 4 in the fourth over.

The hosts had their tails up. Man-of-the-Match Mayers was having a storming game, taking two wickets to fall in the powerplay and leaping high to snaffle a ridiculous running catch to dismiss du Plessis.

The Kings captain unsuccessfully took on a short ball from his fellow South African, Anrich Nortje (2/29).

Game, set and match? Wrong!

The Kings’ middle-order pair of Bhanuka Rajapaksa (68*, 35, 6×4, 4×6) and Tim Seifert (64*, 27, 4×4, 6×6) wrested the momentum away from the Patriots in a brutal counter-attacking 123-run fifth-wicket partnership of 123, amply aided by as many as four missed chances.

Seifert was put down twice before reaching double figures, the former TKR player edging Nortje to Fletcher in the sixth over only to see the ball  literally burst through the keeper’s gloves.

Seifert quickly made good use of the life given him by his fellow wicketkeeper/batsman as well as a second by substitute fielder Dominic Drakes in the over before. He clouted the first two balls of Tabraiz Shamsi’s first over, the eighth of the innings for sixes.

Then, in the ninth which cost the hosts a whopping 29 runs, he muscled three more sixes off Ashmead Nedd. Together, Nedd and Shamsi conceded 87 runs from five overs of left-arm spin.

More importantly perhaps, Fletcher was effectively stripped of the wicket-taking option provided by the wily South African.

In the tenth over,  halfway through the chase, the Kings were well-placed on 106 for four. With Patriots shoulders arguably dropping, Rutherford grassed a chance from Rajapaksa, then on 21, on the cover boundary.

“We can’t be dropping catches like these,” Fletcher commented glumly in the post-match interview, “and expect to win against a powerful batting line-up.

“I know guys are not going out there to drop catches but, as the saying goes, catches win matches.”

Mayers, having a field day, was holding on to his catches, and he took another smart one in the 11th over to dismiss Seifert, leaving the Kings on 127 for five.

West Indies coach Daren Sammy, no doubt impressed by the earlier Lewis/Mayers show, was paying careful attention from the Kings dugout.

He would have been less impressed as Rajapaksa was helped to his fifty by West Indies opener Mikyle Louis, palming an attempted catch on the mid-wicket boundary for six in the 14th over.

Rajapaksa and Wiese (34*, 20, 2×4, 2×6) got the Kings safely and comfortably over the line. Their 75-run partnership was still unbroken and there were 16 balls to spare.

The energising come-from-behind win was the best gift the team could give itself before its journey to Antigua for their second game on Tuesday night,

It’s only week one of the 12th edition of the CPL, but, in Spiceman’s words, the Patriots will need to “buck up on fielding and execution” if they are to register their first home win of the season versus defending champions Guyana Amazon Warriors on Wednesday night.

Summarised scores

Toss: St Lucia Kings

St Kitts and Nevis Patriots: 201 for 3 (20 overs) Evin Lewis 100*, Kyle Mayers 92; David Wiese 2/29

St Lucia Kings: 202 for 5 (17.2 overs) Bhanuka Rajapaksa 68*, Tim Seifert 64, David Wiese 34; Anrich Nortje 2/29, Kyle Mayers 2/38

Man-of-the-Match: Kyle Mayers

Result: St Lucia Kings win by 5 wickets.

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