St Lucia Kings won the Caribbean Premier League 2024 title to mark their maiden tournament triumph as they defeated defending champions Guyana Amazon Warriors in the final on Sunday by six wickets. (More Cricket News)
Chasing 139, the Kings, owned by the same group that runs Punjab Kings franchise in the Indian Premier League, were in a spot of bother at one point. They needed 66 runs from 30 balls to win the tournament on a tricky pitch in Guyana. However, Roston Chase and Aaron Jones smashed Moeen Ali for 27 runs in the 16th over to tilt the scales in the favour of Kings. The duo then guided Kings to their maiden CPL title with 11 balls still remaining in the contest.
St Lucia Kings, who earlier played as St Lucia Zouks, were the only franchise playing from the inaugural season of the CPL to have never won the tournament.
Earlier, Noor Ahmad was once again the star of the proceedings for the Kings, registering 3 wickets for just 19 runs in his 4 overs to restrict the Amazon Warriors to 138/8 in 20 overs. Kings too struggled before Jones and Chase combined to take them home.
The coach of St Lucia franchise, Darren Sammy revealed that Jones, the star for USA at the T20 World Cup, had predicted just five days ago that he would win the CPL for his team.
"I’ll tell you something, five days ago, Aaron Jones said to me that he will win me the CPL final, I swear to God," said Sammy. "And we made one chance today, because the way he looked me in the eye when he said that, I believed that. We did send a message that the Moeen over had to go for plenty. He would his rhythm and I guess the message was well delivered."
Speaking after the win, the captain of the Kings Faf du Plessis said: "We have been really consistent throughout the league stage and I believe the two best teams played in the final. We always believed in the depth of the squad and credit to Roston and Aaron for absorbing the pressure and stepping up in the final when needed. It takes a special team performance to come here to their home ground and beat them twice. I am extremely proud of the team for showing grit throughout the tournament and getting the job done. There was an excitement at the start of the competition in St Lucia about is this gonna be the season. First CPL trophy and it is a great achievement."
Noor Ahmed was adjudged the player of the tournament for taking 22 wickets in 12 matches whereas Roston Chase won the player of the match award for his match-winning 39 off 22 balls along with bowling figures of 1 wicket for 13 runs.
