GROS ISLET, St Lucia, CMC – St Kitts and Nevis Patriots looked anything but defending champions as brittle batting sent them to a heavy 61-run defeat to St Lucia Kings here Sunday night.
In a repeat of last year’s Caribbean Premier League final, Patriots collapsed for exactly 100 off 19 overs in pursuit of 162 at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground, to suffer their third defeat in six games.
Captain Evin Lewis struck a nine-ball 24 while Darren Bravo grafted 20 from 25 deliveries in contrast, to be the only two batsmen to pass 20.
Patriots have registered only one victory with two of their matches abandoned as no-results, and they lie fourth on four points.
For their part, Kings climbed to third but also on four points, having lost four games in the near two-week-old campaign.
Sent in, Kings were propelled by captain Faf du Plessis’s 60 off 35 balls as they rallied to 161 for nine off their 20 overs.
The South African provided the innings with a flying start, lashing three fours and five sixes and posting 86 for the first wicket with the in-form Johnson Charles who punched 41 off 32 balls with four fours and a brace of sixes, to become the third player for the tournament to surpass 200 runs.
Once Charles failed to clear long on in the ninth over and holed out off South African pacer Dwaine Pretorius (3-37), wickets fell steadily to leave Kings scrambling to pass 150.
The odds were always stacked against Patriots when their leading run-getter Andre Fletcher fell to the fourth ball of the chase without a run on the board, holing out to deep mid-wicket off 20-year-old former Young West Indies seamer Matthew Forde (3-19).
Lewis counter-attacked with three fours and two sixes to dominate a 28-run, second-wicket stand with Dewald Brevis (11) before Bravo and Sherfane Rutherford (9) put on a further 27 for the fourth.
But medium pacer David Wiese weighed in with the ball with three for 17 as Patriots lost their last seven wickets for 34 runs.
