Wired868 Wired868 for smart sport news and opinion
“What a player, what a career and what a man!”
St Lucia Kings captain Faf du Plessis was speaking at the end of Tuesday’s 2024 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Match 26 on Tuesday, which his St Lucia Kings won convincingly by 81 runs.
But those ten words were not spoken in reference to Man-of-the-Match Johnson Charles, whose 40-ball 89 had effectively won the match for his team.
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868
Du Plessis was saluting Trinbago Knight Riders allrounder Dwayne Bravo who had just left the field in tears. The 40-year-old T20 specialist had had to sit out the SLK innings after pulling up with an injury but had come out to the middle after the fall of the ninth TKR wicket.
“Looks like the end of his CPL [career],” du Plessis commented. “[I] would have liked to give him a good send-off […] and wanted to give him a special mention.”
Saying that it was “sad to see [him] finishing in that way, he added that Bravo was “someone I have admired for a long time and he has done so much for everyone around the Caribbean.”
Photo: Ashley Allen – CPL T20/CPL T20 via Getty Images
Du Plessis’ opposite number Kieron Pollard, who last week identified DJB as his “best friend”, called him “a charismatic person [who] has been inspiring throughout”.
“He has given everything to cricket and cricket has rewarded him,” he continued after saying that he wanted “to thank him for all that he has done for cricket”.
He then came to the news that everyone really wanted to hear about. Remarking that “he is not a good space right now”, Pollard said that “it looked pretty serious [but] we are not sure if it is going to be the end for him.”
Turning to the subject of the day’s game, Pollard conceded that: “From a bowling perspective, we have a bit of work to do.” He pronounced himself satisfied with his work with the ball on the day.
Photo: Ashley Allen – CPL T20/CPL T20 via Getty Images
“With DJ going down, […] [Andre] Russell not 100% fit and [Sunil] Narine not there, I had to manage it. It was a good shift for me.”
“I am at that stage [of my career],” he ended, “where I am just enjoying my cricket, entertaining the crowd.”
The player who provided the most entertainment for the crowd on Tuesday was indisputably Charles. His 89 included seven fours and eight sixes, several of them genuine switch-hits.
Du Plessis called him “excellent” and “a perfect example of someone still growing his game”.
Photo: Johnny Jno-Baptiste/ Wired868
Citing “the way he put the spinners under pressure”, du Plessis explained how that came about.
“In the past, people would bowl lots of left-arm spin to him [so] he has gone back and worked on some shots,” he said. “He is playing his best cricket [and his switch-hit] is Kevin Pietersen-like—he is becoming really difficult to bowl to.”
Charles himself explained that “it is something I have put into my game. I have been practising since the PSL earlier in the year and it is developing well.”
Photo: Ashley Allen – CPL T20/CPL T20 via Getty Images
He attributed the win over the Knight Riders to “long planning” and sticking to their plans. He revealed that SLK, who have never won the CPL title, “plan to come out as champions and, now it is getting down to the business end, are not looking to get complacent.”
Dedicating the day’s win to Olympic sprint champion Julien Alfred, he thanked her for bringing the gold and silver home.
Du Plessis made it clear that his side is “really driven as a group and we want to get ourselves in the top two. One more game left, and we will try to put the foot on the gas and do the right things.”
The contest marked the Kings’ final home match of the 2024 season.
Photo: Ashley Allen – CPL T20/ CPL T20 via Getty Images
Tuesday’s win pushed SLK, on 14 points, four points clear of the chasing pack. Neither the captain nor the Man-of-the-Match mentioned it but they most certainly know that they now have a large target on their backs.
After all, one does not have to be a king to know that uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.
The day after the end of the T20 World Cup, my daughter and a friend of ours were at my Read more
Five overs to go, six wickets intact and 66 runs still needed for victory. Saint Lucia Kings (SLK) are chasing Read more
The deed is done. The defending champions have been defeated. By six wickets. And on their third attempt—having repeatedly discussed Read more
A cricket match, a cricket sage once wrote, is played in the minds of the opposing captains. Were he writing Read more
Shimron Odilon Hetmyer warmed the West Indies bench throughout the recent T20 World Cup staged in the West Indies and Read more
When Ramon Simmons bowled Shai Hope for 56, the Guyana Amazon Warriors had not yet overhauled the modest target set Read more
Earl Best taught cricket, French, football and Spanish at QRC for many years and has written consistently for the Tapia and the Trinidad and Tobago Review since the 1970’s.
He is also a former sports editor at the Trinidad Guardian and the Trinidad Express and is now a senior lecturer in Journalism at COSTAATT.
