RBCPL24: Roger that, Coachman! Chase and Jones flip final script for SLK after warning

Five overs to go, six wickets intact and 66 runs still needed for victory.

Saint Lucia Kings (SLK) are chasing their first-ever Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) title. Before a partisan crowd at the National Stadium in Providence, Guyana on Sunday evening, the right-handed pair of Roston Chase and Aaron Jones seem to be stuck in the matrix in pursuit of a modest 139.

With 2023 CPL champs Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAW) putting the squeeze on through the middle overs by conceding just 33 runs from over #7 to #15, an animated Daren Sammy, the SLK coach, can be seen remonstrating in the dugout.

Shortly afterwards, substitute Johann Jeremiah hurries out to the middle with refreshments, towel and a stern message for the batsmen.

“Coachie says time to get a damn move on,” one imagines he says. Or words to that effect.

“Either you hit out or get out.”

Whatever the words, the message was clear. It certainly provoked just the reaction it was intended to. Off-spinner Moeen Ali (4-0-41-1) was taken for 27 runs in the 16th over, and the ever-reliable Dwaine Pretorius (3-0-25-1), Warriors best death bowler, was taken for 20 runs in the next.

Suddenly, in a heartbeat, the bouncing Guyana National Stadium in Providence became the Guyana National Library.

One moment Chase and Jones were facing a  daunting 66 from 30 balls, the next a completely unchallenging 19 off 18 balls was what was required. With six wickets still in hand. There was only going to be one winner.

If a pin dropped, a door slammed shut or even a light switch was flicked on at one end of disbelieving Providence, you could hear it at the other.

An unshackled Jones (48, 31 balls, 4×6, 2×4) and Man-of-the-Match Chase (39, 22, 2×6, 2×4) combined to post an unbeaten 88-run partnership, flipping the switch that dimmed the Warriors’ light and leading the Kings to a six-wicket win with 11 balls to spare.

On a night when Guyanese president Mohammed Irfan Ali unveiled the 26 November-7 December 2024 Global Super League T20 tournament, the Kings rained on the home team’s parade, tasting CPL success for the first time.

In 2020 and 2021, they finished runners-up to Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) and Saint Kitts and Nevis Patriots (SKNP) respectively.

Losers of five finals before finally hitting the CPL pinnacle last season, the Warriors know a thing or two about finishing second-best.

After their indifferent batting display got a shot in the arm at the death by a rapid 37-run stand between Pretorius (25 off 12 balls) and Romario Shepherd (19 off 9 balls), the hosts soon got a taste of blood in the water.

With their top run-scorers Johnson Charles (7) and skipper Faf du Plessis (21) both already back in the hut, Tim Seifert (3) was trapped LBW by Pretorius in the tenth over, immediately before the water break.

SLK were precariously placed on 51 for 4 and, in that first over, Pretorius was getting the ball to talk.

And what an eventful over it was! The 2023 CPL final Man-of-the-Match for his haul of four wickets, Pretorius started with a bang.

Three times he struck the pad of a right-handed batsman with late inward movement, three times, umpire Patrick Gustard raised the dreaded index finger, three times the batsman promptly reviewed.

Seifert had to go. Umpire’s call. Both Chase and Jones lived to fight another day, the DRS ball tracker showing both deliveries missing leg-stump.

Making little progress against Pretorius’ seamers or the miserly slower stuff from Warriors skipper Imran Tahir (3-0-16-0), Gudakesh Motie (4-0-20-0) and Moeen (3-0-14-1) before the onslaught, Chase and Jones appeared to be spinning top in mud.

By the end of the 14th over, the Kings had crawled to 67 for four, leaving them needing 72 runs off the last six overs.

Less than pleased, Sammy sent Jeremiah out with his first set of instructions.

After the 15th over from Motie went for only six runs, the emissary sprinted onto the field once more to drive the message home.

“Don’t let coachman have to send me out here again,” one imagines him pleading. “Please!”

The one in Moeen’s remarkable 1/14 figures was the big scalp of du Plessis and he was one of the most loved men in Georgetown. By the end of his last over, though, he would have been looking for the quickest way out of the Guyana capital.

“We thought about it,” Sammy said, asked if the thought of retiring Jones had crossed his mind. “But we did send a message that we had to try and get as much as possible in that Moeen over.

“Jones found his rhythm and I guess the message was well-delivered.”

It most certainly was. The scorecard records Moeen’s final over as 6, 1, 6, 4, 6, 4.

Before that over, the solitary six in the Kings’ innings had come off the bat of du Plessis at the end of the power play. The bowler? You guessed it. Moeen!

Five days ago, Sammy said Jones promised to win the CPL final for the Kings.

“I swear to God. We made one change today because I believed Jones. When he looked in my eyes, I believed that.”

For a batsman who had scored just nine runs from his two innings prior to the final, it was a massive vote of confidence.

Brought into the Kings’ XI for Jeremiah, whose only appearance came in the qualifier win against the Warriors on Wednesday, Jones quickly turned Sammy into a believer.

The diminutive right-hander picked up a slower ball from Pretorius and swatted it over long-on, before playing an audacious pull shot in the same region, just clearing a desperate leap by Keemo Paul.

“I see myself as a match-winner,” said Jones, who came through the Barbados youth ranks and made his first-class debut versus Trinidad and Tobago in 2017, before going on to represent the USA.

“I knew this first CPL title for Saint Lucia Kings was going to be very important. I just told the coach I’m going to raise my hand for the country.”

Stunned by the savagery of Jones’ attack, the Warriors leaked 18 runs off Shepherd in over #18th before Tahir held up a veritable white flag in the penultimate over with a wide down the leg-side in the penultimate over.

After battling a viral infection, Chase was thankful to the Father above for giving him the strength to be on the winning side after the team’s heartbreaking last-ball defeat to STKNP in the 2021 finale.

In the year of Olympic sprint queen Julien “Ju Ju” Alfred, the cricketing Kings finally struck gold to also take their place atop the CPL podium.

After his team’s loss to the Warriors in their final preliminary match on 28 September, Sammy said Guyana needed to beat the Kings on four occasions this season to defend their crown.

At the end of the season, the head-to-head record stood at two apiece, but Sammy’s Kings had the critical final say.

Barring the last two overs of their bowling innings which cost 36 runs, the Kings were excellent, stifling the top-heavy Warriors team with 63 dot balls.

Left-arm unorthodox spinner Noor Ahmad (4-0-19-3) was again outstanding, claiming left-handers Moeen (14), Shimron Hetmyer (11) and Raymon Reifer (13) to weave his way to the CPL MVP award.

With three CPL titles with TKR under his belt, Khary Pierre (4-0-21-1) held his nerve and got the dangerous Rahmanullah Gurbaz with the third ball of the contest, while, with his very first ball, Chase (2-0-13-1) landed the timely blow of ending last year’s CPL MVP Shai Hope’s (22) innings.

Stuttering at 97 for 7 in the 18th over, the Warriors gave themselves a fighting chance when Shepherd and Pretorius pillaged the last two overs from Alzarri Joseph (4-0-35-1) and David Wiese (3-0-34-1).

The Providence faithful thought they had it in the bag when the Kings lost four wickets inside ten overs. Chase and Jones showed them otherwise, delivering the knockout punch with their clinical display of power hitting.

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