Saint Lucia Kings made it three wins on the spin in the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with a thrilling one-run victory over the Trinbago Knight Riders on Sunday night.

The Knight Riders won the toss and opted to field first and that decision appeared to have backfired when Johnson Charles’ half-century got the Kings off to a lightning start.

Although the Knight Riders pegged the Kings back in the middle overs a devastating 33 off 14 balls from David Wiese ensured the Knight Riders were set a very difficult 148 to win.

 The Knight Riders’ task became even more difficult when they lost three early wickets inside the PowerPlay including that of Nicholas Pooran for a duck. 

 They never really recovered from that and left themselves too much ground to make up in the back end resulting in the narrow defeat.

 The Kings had got off to a flier in the PowerPlay with the tournament’s top scorer Charles hitting another barnstorming fifty. His partnership with Niroshan Dickwella added 59 runs before Ravi Rampaul carried on his good form by removing the latter.

 When Rampaul removed the set Charles it led to a squeeze on the Kings scorecard as 82-3 quickly became 117-5.

 However, David Wiese was able to produce an excellent counter-attacking innings at the death to help the Kings post a challenging 147.

 The Knight Riders' response saw their top order fail again as Leonardo Julien, Colin Munro and Nicholas Pooran all fell inside the powerplay to Roston Chase.

 That left the middle and lower order too much to do and despite a late salvo by Andre Russell in the final over of the game, it was too little too late.

 The two sides swap places in the table following the results and both will now head to Guyana with all to play for in the race for the playoffs. 

Scores: Saint Lucia Kings 147-6 (Charles 54, Wiese 33; Rampaul 2-10, Narine 2-31) beat Trinbago Knight Riders 146-6 (Seifert 44, Pollard 34; Chase 3-17, Joseph 2-26) by 1 run.

Saint Lucia Kings moved back into the play-off spots with a 49-run victory over St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the 20th match of the 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) season on Saturday.

St Kitts and Nevis Patriots won the toss and chose to field first, but it was Faf du Plessis who got the Saint Lucia Kings off to a dominating start by scoring boundaries throughout the opening overs. Johnson Charles then continued to score runs, before big hitting from David Wiese and Roshon Primus powered the Kings to a total of 189-7. 

In their chase, the Patriots could not find fluency as they lost four wickets in the first 10 overs. Wiese was the stand-out bowler for the Kings, taking three wickets for just eight runs as the Patriots finished 140 all out and lost by a margin of 49 runs. 

Saint Lucia Kings had a positive start to their innings with du Plessis and Charles comfortably hitting boundaries at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, although the former would lose his wicket attempting a scoop shot. Despite losing wickets at regular intervals, the Kings managed to score 189-7 largely thanks to the performance of Charles, who scored 61 and was at the crease for over 15 overs. 

St Kitts and Nevis Patriots had begun to build a foundation in their chase but lost both openers Andre Fletcher and Evin Lewis in the fifth over. With Wiese then taking the wickets of both Darren and DJ Bravo, the Patriots began to rebound with Dewald Brevis scoring some crucial runs before he was caught out. As the Patriots lost more wickets, Kesrick Williams proving a threat with the ball, they could not keep up with the required run rate and were bowled out for 140, losing by 49 runs. 

 Scores:  Saint Lucia Kings 189-7 (Charles 61, du Plessis 41; DJ Bravo 1-26, Khan 2-45) beat St Kitts & Nevis Patriots 140 all out (Brevis 32, Khan 26; Wiese 3-8, Williams 3-32) by 49 runs.

Saint Lucia Kings kept their Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) hopes alive with a dominant victory against St Kitts & Nevis Patriots at the Darren Sammy Stadium in St Lucia Sunday night.

 The Patriots won the toss and opted to field first and that appeared to have backfired when Johnson Charles and Faf Du Plessis put on a blistering opening partnership that saw them post 61 runs in the PowerPlay. 

 However, much like their performance against the Guyana Amazon Warriors, the Kings faltered badly in the back end of their innings losing nine wickets for 75 runs.  

Despite the stuttering end to their innings, the 161-9 the Kings posted always looked tricky and the Patriots got off to a bad start in the PowerPlay losing three wickets for 48 runs.

They never recovered from that position as the Kings blew them away with an excellent performance in the field. Tim David led the way with a Hero CPL record-equalling five catches in the outfield. 

The Kings needed a good performance in this must-win game and led by captain Faf Du Plessis’ 60 runs from 35 balls they set off very quickly. 

Ably assisted by the in-form Johnson Charles the pair put on 86 for the first wicket but once Charles fell the Kings innings fell away. They regularly lost wickets in clusters and when Alzarri Joseph departed for a duck with the score on 124-7 it looked as if the Kings may not see out the overs. 

However, late hitting from Matthew Forde ensured the Kings were able to post a par score of 161. 

The Patriots' innings was in deep trouble very early on in reply. Matthew Forde ripped through the top three to leave the Patriots teetering at the end of the Powerplay.

 From that point, the Patriots failed to build any meaningful partnership as their top order continued to struggle.

 When Alzarri Joseph removed Darren Bravo for 20 to leave the Patriots on 81-6, that was the last of the recognised batters and the innings soon ended with the Patriots ending on 100 all out.

Saint Lucia Kings 161-9 (Du Plessis 60, Charles 41; Pretorius 3-37, Dananjaya 2-30) beat St Kitts & Nevis Patriots 100 (Lewis 24, Bravo 20; Wiese 3-17, Forde 3-19) by 61 runs.

Guyana Amazon Warriors secured their first victory of the 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) season with a win over Saint Lucia Kings by six wickets in front of a lively home crowd on Saturday.

 The Guyana Amazon Warriors won the toss and chose to field, yet the Kings got off to a blistering start, racing to 77-0 in the powerplay before being held back by spinners Imran Tahir and Tabraiz Shamsi. The Kings finished on 161-7, with Johnson Charles batting throughout the whole innings and scoring a superb 87 off just 59 balls.

Despite losing early wicket, Guyana Amazon Warriors navigated their chase through Shimron Hetmyer and Heinrich Klaasen, who built a 66-run partnership. Klaasen would go on to score a sublime 61 from 46 balls to take Amazon Warriors to their first win of the season with ten balls to spare.

Saint Lucia Kings got off to a dream start, Charles combining with Faf du Plessis to reach 77-0 after six overs, the highest powerplay score of the season so far. Yet Shamsi and Tahir highlighted their quality by restricting runs and picking up wickets that held up scoring for the Kings. Tim David launched a late counter-attack, but it was Keemo Paul who shone with the ball in the final over, picking up two wickets and giving away just four runs, which saw the Kings end on 161-7 after 20 overs. 

Guyana Amazon Warriors started their chase with intent, Chandrapaul Hemraj scoring five boundaries before being dismissed in the 4th over, with fellow opener Shai Hope being caught two balls later. Nevertheless, Hetmyer and Klaasen worked together to score runs and keep the Warriors close to their target. Despite Hetmyer losing his wicket, Klaasen would bat through to the end, and supported by Keemo Paul, managed to get his side across the line with ten balls remaining. 

 The win means Amazon Warriors have registered their first victory of the season, while Saint Lucia Kings have suffered their second successive loss. 

 The Barbados Tridents have announced their retentions for the 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League which gets underway on August 28 in St Kitts & Nevis.

 The Tridents will welcome back the world’s number one rated Test all-rounder and Tridents’ captain Jason Holder, along with fellow Barbadians Shai Hope, Kyle Mayers, Raymon Reifer, Justin Greaves, Nyeem Young and Joshua Bishop.

 In addition to the local playing contingent, the Tridents have retained opening batsman Johnson Charles and leg spinner Hayden Walsh Jr who was the player of the tournament when the Tridents claimed the Hero CPL title in 2019.

 Tridents have eight spots left to fill in their squad and the remaining players will be announced in the coming weeks.

 Kailash Pardasani, Barbados Tridents Co-CEO, said: “We are really excited to welcome back our retained players and especially look forward to making Barbados and all Tridents’ fans very proud in our upcoming 2021 season. Our primary driving factor is the Barbados Tridents family which comprises our players, their extended families and all fans across the globe. This together with our love and passion for the game of cricket will enable us to bring the Hero CPL 2021 title back home as we did in 2019.“