Saint Lucia Kings qualifies for playoffs, becomes table topper defeating Barbados Royals

Saint Lucia Kings becomes the second in line to qualify for the Playoffs of the Caribbean Premier League 2024, defeating Barbados Royals by 13 runs. The game was hosted at Guyana’s Providence Stadium on 22^nd September 2024.

The match began with Barbados Royals winning the toss and they decided to bowl first. The Captain of the Kings failed to showcase his impressive skills with the bat and got stumped out in just 4 runs by Quinton de Kock in Keshav Maharaj’s delivery.

The wicket-keeper batsman, Johnson Charles once again shined with his bat and scored 53 runs in just 41 balls with 4 sixes and 3 fours, playing an impressive knock with the strike rate of 129.27. Saint Lucia Kings got a competitive score of 162 runs with a fifty from Charles and a couple of cameos from Tim Seifert and David Wiese.

Ackeem Auguste who was struggling to hit big shots, got retired hurt and David Wiese came in place of him and gave a perfect finish to the innings of Saint Lucia, giving the target of 163 runs to the Barbados Royals.

The Royals started the chase on a good note as Kadeem Alleyne and Quinton de Kock laid the foundation with a fifty plus opening stand. However, Kock became the victim of Alzarri Joseph’s delivery and got caught out by Roston Chase, scoring 22 runs in 13 balls.

Once, Kock fell, the Barbados Royals went into a shell as they lost the top three wickets in quick succession. Kadeem Alleyne who was also going pretty smooth with his bat, had to depart falling short of just 3 runs of his fifty, scoring 47 runs in 25 balls.

Moreover, David Miller and Jason Holder played for a long period of time but failed to make a winning impact. And, Royals ended up losing the match by 13 runs.

After the match, Johnson Charles was awarded the Player of the Match who admitted that left-arm bowlers posed several challenges for him, pushing him to evolve him game. Meanwhile, the Captain appreciated his bowlers and stated that they squeezed the Royals really well after such an exceptional start they had.

The bowlers of the Saint Lucia Kings namely, Alzarri Joseph, Noor Ahmad, and David Weise took two wickets each. This nail-biting victory by Saint Lucia Kings also resulted in leading Saint Lucia to the top of the table pushing down Barbados Royals to the third position.