The Saint Lucia Kings are out of this year’s Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League, and a familiar name helped seal their fate. All-rounder Shadrack Descarte struck a determined half-century for the Barbados Tridents in what was a bittersweet moment for Saint Lucians.
Before the match at Kensington Oval in Barbados on Saturday night, the Kings needed the Tridents to lose badly to the Jamaica Kingsmen to keep their playoff hopes alive.
After restricting the Kingsmen to just 150, the Tridents began their chase in shaky fashion. As wickets kept falling, the team needed an innings to stabilise the batting and prevent a complete collapse. Up stepped Descarte.
His 56 from 42 balls, made while batting with the middle and lower order, played a key role in his team’s win.
The innings was a kind of redemption for the Mon Repos native, who spent most of last season with the Saint Lucia Kings on the bench, only sometimes playing as a substitute or 12th man. Even after joining the Tridents for the 2026 CPL, Descarte barely played until the team returned home to Barbados.
While his performance was not enough to earn Man of the Match honours, which went to Gudakesh Motie following his figures of 2 for 7 with the ball and a 17-run cameo to close out the game, Descarte received high praise from his captain, Chris Green.
“He’s been brilliant since he came in with the ball, field, and bat,” Green said. “That was a career-best score for him in the CPL, and he’s showing his flexibility. He’s a batter who was used down the order in the past, but we’ve used him up the order and he’s grabbed that opportunity with both hands. In tournament cricket, you need players stepping up towards the back end, and fortunately, we’ve got different players putting their hands up now, which is so important.”
Descarte also received commendation from Parliamentary Representative for Micoud North Jeremiah Norbert, who described his constituent’s innings as “classy, patient and impactful”.
Descarte and the Tridents will try to repeat their win against the same team when they meet again in this year’s Eliminator on Wednesday.
