The Saint Lucia Kings suffered a heavy defeat at Warner Park against the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, their second loss to the Patriots this season.
The Kings obtained an early wicket when Kyle Mayers was caught behind, but from then on it was all the Patriots. A series of sixes got off to a start with an 81-run stand between the former Kings players Andre Fletcher and Johnson Charles.
After Charles fell for 26 off 23 deliveries, Fletcher was dropped twice on the brink of his half-century before eventually being dismissed for 64.
The star of the match was Dasun Shanaka. The Sri Lankan player reached a century in just 39 balls, setting a new record as the fastest hundred in CPL history, and finished on 121. During this outstanding performance, he hit 12 sixes and eight fours, bringing his team to a substantial total of 235.
The Kings began their reply in the worst possible way, losing Kamil Pooran for a duck. More wickets fell afterwards, with only Tim Seifert displaying any real resilience by scoring a determined half-century from 36 balls. Seifert took more than half of the team’s runs, and the Kings were eventually all out for 98, losing by 137 runs. Jeremiah Louis stood out with the ball for the Patriots, taking a remarkable 5 wickets for just 10 runs.
The heavy defeat seriously hurt the team’s net run rate and left them in fourth place.
In a post-match interview, Captain Roston Chase highlighted the team’s several missed fielding opportunities that cost them the game.
“We didn’t start well in the power play,” he said. “Then when we got our chances, we didn’t take them and St Kitts made us pay. It was a brilliant knock by Shanika, nevertheless. I don’t want to take anything away from him, [but] I thought that we could have been better.”
“Then, chasing a score like 235, you have to be on the throttle from ball one and we didn’t really get the start I was looking for. We were always on the back foot, losing quick wickets and never got going.
“I just think now we have to put this game behind us as quickly as possible. We still have two games to go, must-win games, and we need to get that playoff berth.”
