It has been a year of sporting wins for Saint Lucia as, after its first Olympic Gold, the Caribbean nation has gotten its hands finally on the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) trophy in the 2024 edition. Saint Lucia Kings after coming close to winning the trophy twice, finally got their hands on the silverware as they beat the defending champions Guyana Amazon Warriors in a thrilling final at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Sunday, October 6 (local time.)
At the 15-over mark it seemed like the game was slipping from the Kings' grasp as they needed to score more than 13 runs per over with Roston Chase being unbeaten on 14 off 15 and Aaron Jones, USA's T20 World Cup star, struggling at 10 off 19. Later Faf du Plessis, the Kings skipper revealed that the team management had planned to retire out Jones after one more over and send David Wiese in. However, Jones and Chase literally smashed the living daylights out of Guyana Amazon Warriors in the next three overs to kill the chase.
Jones and Chase smashed 27 runs off Moeen Ali's over, the ball was spinning but they had to go after the bowling and favourable match-up made it easy for them to do that. Once they got the hang of it, they just didn't leave it. The next over yielded 20 and the 18th 18. 65 runs in three overs and the match was done and dusted.
Some magic words were said by Daren Sammy just after the 15th over and the flick of switch though necessary was sudden and monstrous. The Warriors went from looking like winning the game to losing it within 20 balls.
It was a memorable chase for the Kings as they were floundering at one point before being resurrected by Jones and Chase as the duo got the Men in Blue to their first title. It was also the first title in the Kings universe, Saint Lucia being a subsidiary of the Punjab Kings side in the IPL. The Kings fans were ecstatic with the first trophy, and RCB fans were excited too, since it was Faf du Plessis, their IPL captain who won a trophy and they are optimistic of their team's chances in 2025.
However, the win was set up by the bowlers in the first innings after Du Plessis opted to bowl first. The Kings' spin trio of Chase, Khary Pierre and the Player of the Tournament Noor Ahmad was all over the batting line-up of the Warriors. Dwaine Pretorius and Romario Shepherd's cameos provided some respectability to the total but 138 was always going to be a modest total as it eventually turned out to be.
