In yet another brilliant all-round display, Saint Lucia Kings have moved to the top of the table with a victory against Barbados Royals. Heading into this game, we were in good form and spirits with six points from our first five games.
Sikandar Raza stepped out for his first toss as Saint Lucia Kings captain, and despite losing the toss, the Zimbabwean all-rounder said that he would've batted anyway. Colin Munro replaced the departed Faf and Matthew Forde was also declared fit for the game.
After losing the toss and being put into bat first, the onus was on us to get a decent start in what was a tricky surface to play on. Johnson Charles and Colin Munro gave us a dream start and put on a 97-run partnership for the first wicket.
However, we were also helped early on with a dropped catch of Munro in the very first over. Laurie Evans dropped a relatively easy catch and Munro made sure the Royals paid for his costly mistake. Charles finally found the form that made him the leading run-scorer for us in the previous edition and was playing with confidence in the middle.
Munro and Charles were dealing in boundaries and the Royals’ bowlers had no answers to their batting prowess. It wasn’t until the final ball of the 10th over that the Royals got their first breakthrough. Munro would be disappointed with himself after Roelof van der Merwe dismissed the experienced Kiwi batter for 33 of 27 with a short and loose ball. Charles on the other end, continued his onslaught and was smashing the ball all over the park.
The Saint Lucia born wicket-keeper batter was gifted a lifeline in the 12th over against the bowling of van der Merwe where he was dropped by Rovman Powell. The former South African international spinner continued to pick up wickets at regular intervals with a wicket of in-form batter Sean Williams for just 5. Charles continued to lose wickets on the other end with the dismissal of Sadrack Descarte next in line for just 8 runs, this time against Jason Holder in the 16th over.
Holder picked up the big wicket of Johnson Charles in the same over with a slower ball and walked back with a well-made 78 of just 52 balls - an innings that had six 4s and five 6s. The runs started to dry up after Charles’ wicket but Raza and Primus ensured they got a couple of sixes for us towards the end of the innings. Both the batters were dismissed in successive overs and Roston Chase and Forde put us in a good position and pushed us close to 200 with a total of 195/6 on the board.
With a mountain to climb in the second innings for the Barbados Royals, our bowlers piled early pressure on their batters. We continued our impressive form with the ball and held our record for bowling opponents out in each match this season. Forde got us off to a flyer with a wicket of just the third ball in the first over, dismissing their star batter Kyle Myers for a golden duck.
There was a short rain delay, but the game wasn’t affected one bit with it and play resumed without too may problems. Cornwall tried to counter-attack with his hard-hitting with a couple of boundaries after the wicket of Myers but fell prey to Alzarri Joseph’s brilliant bowling. Another golden duck followed, this time with the wicket of Laurie Evans and Joseph was on a hattrick. Joseph did not get his hattrick but wickets continued to tumble for the Royals, much like the return fixture in Saint Lucia.
Rovman Powell was next in line after Roshon Primus dismissed him with the help of some poor batting. Primus continued to play his role as a bowling trump card and picked up the wicket of a struggling Athanaze next. With 40 for 5 on the scoreboard, another huge loss was just a matter of when and not if. Nyeem Young and Jason Holder tried to make sure that the Royals at least played out their 20 overs, but some brilliant tail-end bowling followed.
Peter Hatzoglou and Joseph cleaned up the Royals’ tail end and bowled them out inside 18 overs with just 105 on the board. The win also made sure we moved ahead of Guyana Amazon Warriors in the table in the first spot. We face a struggling Saint Kitts and Nevis Patriots and resurgent Tribago Knight Riders next in a doubleheader weekend and a win over there might all but confirm our progress to the playoffs.
