St Kitts and Nevis Patriots registered their first victory of Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2016 and that too in commanding fashion. The Faf du Plessis-led side thrashed St Lucia Zouks by 58 runs in Match 6 of CPL 2016 at Basseterre on Sunday.
The Patriots posted a huge total of 203 for the loss of seven wickets at the end of their allotted 20 overs. Zouks' captain Darren Sammy probably misread the pitch and the conditions as he had won the toss and asked St Kitts and Nevis Patriots to bat first on a wicket that was tailor-made for batting.
As the game progressed, the pitch became slower and slower and made things difficult for the St Lucia Zouks batsmen.
The Patriots got off to a flier with Lendl Simmons and Elvin Lewis. Both Simmons (30, 16b, 2X4, 3X6) and Lewis started to find the boundaries right from the start of the first innings. They scored close to 70 runs in the Powerplay overs and that gave them the edge early on in the match. Lewis went on to play a wonderful knock of 73 runs (36b, 6X4, 5X6) with a strike-rate of over 200. Devon Thomas too swung his bat, scoring 48 runs (27b, 1X4, 5X6).
Shane Watson (4-0-36-3) was yet again the pick of the bowlers for St Lucia Zouks. Morne Morkel, Darren Sammy and Derone Davis picked up a wicket each.
When Zouks came out to bat, it looked like the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots were going to succumb to yet another defeat as Johnson Charles (40, 30b, 1X4, 3X6) and Watson (55, 31b, 4X4, 3X6) got off to a splendid start, going at over 10 runs an over until the ninth over of the inings.
Zouks, though, pulled things back, with Samuel Badree (4-0-22-2), Thisara Perera, Carlos Brathwaite and Tabraiz Shamsi all doing their jobs to restrict them to 145/5.
