St Lucia Kings spring top of the table after beating St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, who are stuck at 5th in the table.
St Lucia Kings rise to No. 1 after Shamsi, Seifert and Charles make short work of Patriots.
Being difficult to score off, Tabraiz Shamsi gained two chances to display his well-known shoe-phone celebration. In their CPL 2025 match against the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, the St Lucia Kings faced a formidable chase despite his 2 for 17. Tim Seifert and Johnson Charles, the Kings’ openers, were responsible for getting there with 18 balls and seven wickets remaining. The pursuit became a canter as they combined for 115 runs in just 62 balls.
Kyle Mayers bowled the first over of the chase, which yielded just five runs. Then Charles took off and continued on his way, notwithstanding Naseem Shah. Kings ended the powerplay with 72 runs after scoring 13 in the second over, 18 in the third, and 21 in the fifth. Charles was now batting as fast as Seifert, who had started out slowly, scoring just 15 runs per ball by the fourth over. For the Patriots, everything was looking very dire.
In the seventh over, Waqar Salamkheil gave them the breakthrough by dismissing Charles for a 17-ball 47, but Seifert held onto the lead with the help of Ackeem Auguste, the hero of Kings’ last game.
For the second wicket, Auguste and Seifert scored 60, with Auguste scoring 29 off of 20 balls. Despite falling for a 45-ball 68 in the 15th over, Seifert’s opening burst had given Kings plenty of time and very little to get.
The momentum the Patriots would have desired never materialised after David Wiese had asked them to bat at Kings’ home field earlier. However, their powerplay wasn’t horrible, and Andre Fletcher in particular showed initiative as the Patriots reached 57 for 1 after six overs.
Soon after, Shamsi caused Fletcher to make a mistake and try to heave out of the stadium, but he failed and skyed the ball to Charles behind the stumps, prompting the application of the brakes. Shamsi went on to win Player of the Match for his heroics.
Mohammad Rizwan, batting at number three, rallied with a score of 60 not out in 41 balls, 71 in 52 balls with Mayers (27 in 25), and an unbeaten 37 in 20 balls with Jason Holder (21* in 14). However, on a pitch that was, as the result indicates, good for scoring, neither Rizwan nor Mayers were able to score at the kind of pace the Patriots would have desired.
The win took Kings to the top of the table with eight points from six games, while Patriots are now in fifth position with four points from seven games.