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Thursday, July 24, 2025

Charles, du Plessis unsung as Kings topple Patriots

by

Sport Desk
313 days ago
20240914
Faf du Plessis, right, and teammate Johnson Charles, left, of St Lucia Kings bring up their 100 partnership against Saint Kitts & Nevis Patriots during the Men's 2024 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League match at Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in Gros Islet, Saint Lucia on Thursday. Kings won by five wickets.

Faf du Plessis, right, and teammate Johnson Charles, left, of St Lucia Kings bring up their 100 partnership against Saint Kitts & Nevis Patriots during the Men's 2024 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League match at Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in Gros Islet, Saint Lucia on Thursday. Kings won by five wickets.

Courtesy CPL T20

GROS ISLET – Quick-fire fifties from John­son Charles and Faf du Plessis pow­ered the Saint Lu­cia Kings to a dom­i­nant five-wick­et vic­to­ry over the strug­gling St Kitts and Nevis Pa­tri­ots, who suf­fered their sixth con­sec­u­tive de­feat in the 14th match of the Caribbean Pre­mier League at the Dar­ren Sam­my Crick­et Sta­di­um in St. Lu­cia on Thurs­day.

Chas­ing 174, the Kings reached the tar­get com­fort­ably in 16.3 overs, thanks to Charles’s blis­ter­ing 74 off 42 balls (4 fours, 7 six­es) and a 115-run open­ing part­ner­ship with du Plessis, who smashed 62 off 31 balls (5 fours, 5 six­es). The six-wick­et vic­to­ry, achieved with 21 balls to spare, boost­ed the Kings’ net run rate and pro­pelled them to third place on the points ta­ble.

Du Plessis set the tone ear­ly, find­ing the bound­ary off Kyle May­ers in the first over be­fore Charles launched two mas­sive six­es off Jo­hann Layne. The on­slaught in­ten­si­fied as du Plessis ham­mered two fours off May­ers and fol­lowed it up with two tow­er­ing six­es off Veerasam­my Per­maul.

Charles weighed in, dis­patch­ing Per­maul for a bound­ary, as the Kings reached 50 in­side just four overs. The car­nage con­tin­ued, with du Plessis launch­ing An­rich Nort­je for a six and Charles smash­ing Layne for two more max­i­mums, pro­pelling the Kings to 72 with­out loss at the end of the pow­er­play.

Dur­ing the on­slaught, Charles be­came the first play­er to sur­pass 3000 runs in CPL his­to­ry. Not to be out­done, Du Plessis brought up his 25-ball fifty with back-to-back six­es off Per­maul.

The Kings stormed past 100 runs in un­der nine overs, mark­ing their first 100-run open­ing stand since 2019. By the halfway mark, Saint Lu­cia was firm­ly in con­trol, sit­ting at 113 with­out loss with just 61 runs need­ed from the fi­nal 10 overs.

Charles soon reached his half-cen­tu­ry in 33 balls, but the open­ing stand was bro­ken when du Plessis nicked a wide de­liv­ery from Josh Clark­son to the wick­et­keep­er. Tim Seifert made a quick im­pact with a six and a four off Tabraiz Sham­si, but his in­nings was cut short by Clark­son for 13.

In the same over, Charles con­tin­ued his as­sault, ham­mer­ing two more six­es, how­ev­er, his bril­liant in­nings fi­nal­ly end­ed when Wanin­du Hasaranga had him caught for 74.

Hasaranga al­so re­moved Sadrack Descarte, but it was too late to stop the Kings’ mo­men­tum as Ros­ton Chase sealed the win with a bound­ary in the 17th over.

Ear­li­er, the Pa­tri­ots got off to a sol­id start af­ter be­ing asked to take the first strike. An­dre Fletch­er led the charge with two six­es and four fours in the pow­er­play, while Evin Lewis chipped in with a cou­ple of bound­aries.

The duo helped the Pa­tri­ots to 50 in­side the first six overs. Descarte broke the open­ing stand when Lewis cut straight to point and was out caught for 15, and though May­ers struck a four and a six off Descarte, he was bowled by Chase soon af­ter for 17.

Rilee Rossouw joined Fletch­er and hit a six in the same over, guid­ing the Pa­tri­ots to 82-2 at the halfway mark.

The pair added 70 runs for the third wick­et, with Rossouw tak­ing the lead, blast­ing a six off Noor Ah­mad to take the Pa­tri­ots past the 100 mark in the 13th over.

Fletch­er soon reached his fifty off 40 balls, but a cou­ple of qui­et overs left the Pa­tri­ots at 112-2 af­ter 15 overs. Rossouw reignit­ed the in­nings with two six­es off Descarte, fol­lowed by an­oth­er off Alzarri Joseph, but Fletch­er was dis­missed in the same over for a top score of 62.

Rossouw al­so fell af­ter reach­ing his 30-ball fifty, caught off David Wiese. Wiese bowled a way­ward penul­ti­mate over, con­ced­ing sev­er­al wides and a six to Mikyle Louis. Joseph re­strict­ed the Pa­tri­ots to just five runs in the fi­nal over, en­sur­ing they fin­ished well short of the 180 mark.

CMC

SCORES

ST KITTS & NEVIS PA­TRI­OTS 173-5 in 20 overs (An­dre Fletch­er 62, Rilee Rossouw 50. Alzarri Joseph 2-38) vs ST LU­CIA KINGS 176-5 in 16.3 overs (John­son Charles 74, Faf du Plessis 62. Wanin­du Hasaranga 2-13, Josh Clark­son 2-18).

St Lu­cia Kings won by five wick­ets.


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