Basseterre, (West Indies), Sep 2: Sri Lanka star Bhanuka Rajapaksa scored a match-winning unbeaten 68 off 35 balls to fashion a memorable win for St Lucia Kings against Nevis Patriots, in the fifth match of the Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL), here.
Earlier, with help of a fine unbeaten 100 by Evin Lewis and Kyle Mayers scoring an attacking 92, Patriots amassed 201/3 in their allotted 20 overs.
But St Lucia Kings with Rajapaka's hurricane innings and useful contribution of 64 by Tim Seifert, achieved the stiff 202 target in 17.2 overs on Sunday, registering a comprehensive 5-wicket victory.
The match saw a tournament record second wicket partnership of 199 runs between Mayers and Lewis was not enough to see St Kitts & Nevis Patriots to victory The St Lucia Kings completed an ice-veined run chase to pull off a five wicket win with 16 balls remaining, informed an ICC sources.
An unbeaten century for Lewis off 54 balls and 92 from Mayers off 62 deliveries lit up the evening, with boundaries raining down on all corners of the ground, the Patriots pair hitting a combined 16 sixes and 13 fours to set a challenging target of 201/3.
The game looked all but gone for the Kings early in their response. At 24/4 inside four overs with opener and captain Faf du Plessis pocketed by countryman Anrich Nortje for 2 and Mayers doing early damage with the ball in hand to get rid of Johnson Charles and Ackeem Auguste.
A remarkable passage of play followed, Tim Seifert was dropped twice on his way to scoring 64 off 27 balls before Bhanuka Rajapaska (68* off 35) and David Wiese (34* off 20) beat the fielders and cleared the ropes with aplomb to knock off the runs with relative ease.
The rain fell at Warner Park but it wasn’t heavy or sustained enough to come to Patriots rescue, all of their bowlers shipped heavy runs apart from Nortje who finished with 2/29 from his four overs. Team captain Andre Fletcher intimated that his side need to improve in order to challenge in the competition.
“As a fielding unit, we are not helping the bowlers.” Fletcher said after the match. “We can't be dropping catches and expect to win matches against powerful batting line-ups. Catches win matches and we have to do that, and buck up on our fielding.”
It was a bittersweet evening for Kyle Mayers, who picked up the Player of the Match award for his sublime century. “It was a good day for me but the team did not cross the line, so it is still sad. The difference between us and them was that they executed in the back end and the rain also kept our spinners out of the game.”
It as a confident start to the 2024 campaign by St Lucia Kings who chalk up victory in their first outing but plenty to ponder for St Kitts & Nevis Patriots with just one win from three matches so far, added an ICC communiqué.
Brief scores:
Nevis Patriots: 201/3 in 20 overs (Evin Lewis 100*, Kyle Mayers 92; David Wiese 2-29) .
Saint Lucia Kings: 202/5 in 17.2 overs (Bhanuka Rajapaksa 68*, Tim Seifert 64; Anrich Nortje 2-29).
St Lucia Kings won by 5 wickets.
