Matthew Forde’s highly effective bowling won St Lucia Kings (SLK) their 1st win in the CPL after defeating Barbados Royals (BR) by 54 runs.
SLK lost their 1st match to JT by 11 runs and they played their 2nd match in a row in CPL. But they outclass BR in every way and get an easy win. SLK put 201/6 in 20 overs which BR couldn’t get par and made 147/10 in 20 overs.
Firstly Kings captain, du Plessis won the toss and elected to bat first. From the start Kings were clear that they wanted to dominate the day and played fearlessly in the powerplay. Just in the last over of the powerplay, Charles gets bowled by Holder and the opening partnership of 61 runs comes to an end. Charles made 30 runs. (61-1). In that same over, Holder gets another one and he dismisses Sadrack Descarte, the new batsman who just joins the party. Descarte made only 4 runs. (65-2).
As the innings of the Kings looked to stabilize then only Qais Ahmad came and gave a breakthrough to Royals by dismissing du Plessis. Du Plessis was just 4 runs short to complete his 50 and gone for 46 runs. (109-3). Ahmad again came as a saviour as he got the wicket of Sean Williams. Williams was looking good with the shots he played, but missed the spin of Ahmad and wicket keeper Donavon Ferreira shattered the stumps. Williams made 47 runs. (154-4).
In the next over, Holder got the wicket of Sikander Raza with his slowish off cutter which took the edge of Raza’s bat and Nyeem Young took an easy catch at the mid off. Raza scored 23 runs. (159-5). Then Holder in his last over dismisses Roston Chase with his full toss which Chase missed and it directly kisses the stumps. Chase contributed with 14 runs. (186-6).
Roshon Primus 21 runs helps his team to get par 200 score and he remains not out at the end along with Forde who didn’t score any runs. In 20 overs, St Lucia Kings put 201 runs with the loss of 6 wickets.
Holder gets 4 wickets while Qais Ahmad gets the remaining 2 wickets.
BR from the starting didn’t look good and the wickets fell in regular intervals. Rahkeem Cornwall in the very first ball got run out by Chris Sole. He didn’t try hard to get to the other crease with a direct throw of Sole, the bails got off. Cornwall goes out on a golden duck. (0-1). Again in the 1st over, Forde got the wicket of Justin Greaves as he bowled him. Greaves also goes on a golden duck. (4-2).
Royals power play got worse as they lost their 3rd wicket. Kevin Wickham was the one who departed. Forde nail sharp delivery just took the bails off directly. Wickham made just 10 runs. (21-3). Rovman Powell the skipper of Barbados, who was hoping to get some runs, but unfortunately in that same over last ball he goes out and Forde gets another one. Powell didn’t score any runs. He goes for a duck. (21-4).
Things were looking little settled down then only Alzarri Joseph in the last over of the powerplay got the wicket of the other opener Kyle Mayers. Mayers scored 16 runs. (46-5). Royals get damage one after the other and in the next over, Chris Sole gets the wicket of Jason Holder. Holder just couldn’t hold his innings much longer and Sole bowled him. Jason just made 10 runs. (55-6).
Then Raza gets Donavon Ferreira who was caught by Sean Williams as he took a good low catch. Ferreira made 19 runs. (79-7). Khary Pierre gets the next wicket by dismissing Qais Ahmad. Ahmad was only able to score 5 runs. (89-8).
Joshua Bishop tries a lofted shot against Roston Chase but as soon as the ball hits the bat it goes too high in the sky but doesn’t get the distance and Joseph settles himself well to get that high catch easily. Bishop scores 13 runs. (118-9). Nyeem Young was the only one who showed little bravery against the SLK bowlers and scored 48 runs. But in the last delivery of his innings he got out by Sadrack Descarte and Young missed his half century by 2 runs. (147-10).
Obed McCoy remains not out with 4 runs. Forde was highly successful with his overs and he took 3 important wickets in the powerplay and also got a maiden in his spell. Raza, Descarte, Sole, Joseph, Pierre and Chase got 1 wicket each.
As a result Royals were only able to put 147 runs in their 20 overs with all the wickets falling. And Kings won the match by 54 runs.
Matthew Forde, SLK, Player of the Match
“I've been carrying a bit of form since a while, looking to do well in this CPL. My mother is from here. Just tweaked something (related to remaining off field during the match), but I should be back for the next match.”