Barbados Royals fell to a defeat in the reverse fixture against the Saint Lucia Kings in the Caribbean Premier League 2024, losing by 13 runs at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Sunday.
This is the Royals’ second defeat in two days against the Kings, having fallen short in their previous encounter on Saturday. They lost that match by seven wickets. The Royals, the first team to book a berth in the playoffs this season, sit third on the CPL 2024 standings with 10 points. The Kings have displaced them from the top spot.
Skipper Rovman Powell won the toss and chose to bowl first. The Royals fielded an unchanged line-up from their previous encounter against the Kings.
Charles-Auguste’s solid partnership
The Kings' opener Johnson Charles began strongly but lost skipper Faf du Plessis early. The South African was dismissed similarly to the last match, stumped by Quinton de Kock off Keshav Maharaj's delivery.
Ackeem Auguste joined Charles in the middle and then began a solid partnership. Both had failed to score in the previous encounter and did their homework well to stitch a 63-run partnership. Charles was caught off Nyeem Young’s delivery in the 12th over and ended with 53 runs off 41 balls.
Kings’ middle-order hold their ground
Though Roston Chase couldn't replicate his innings from the day before, Tim Seifert picked up from where he had let off. He and Auguste played a patient game before the latter was forced to retire hurt. David Wiese joined a well-set Seifert in the middle and added 23 runs on the board in the last two overs. The late fireworks helped the Kings to post a formidable target of 163 on a challenging wicket.
Royals’ spin brigade shines
The Royals’ spinners proved to be more effective than the seamers, as was expected off the pitch. Maharaj struck early, but could not make an impact later on. However, the bowlers did well to restrict the run flow from the 10th to the 15th over, allowing only 37 runs while picking up two crucial wickets - Charles and Chase. Rahkeem Cornwall was also economical with his spin attack, conceding just eight runs in his first two overs.
Impressive start by de Kock-Alleyne
The Royals started the chase on a good note. De Kock and Kadeem Alleyne laid the foundation with a fine fifty-plus opening stand. They breached the 50-run mark in the fourth over itself. However, de Kock fell to Alzarri Joseph’s pace in the fifth over after putting 22 runs from 13 balls on the board.
Wickets fall in quick succession
From here the match started going downhill for the Royals. They went into a shell and lost the top three in quick succession. First Rahkeem Cornwall fell, and then Alleyne was dismissed by Mikkel Govia. Alleyne ended with 47 runs off 25 deliveries. From 0/52 in the fourth over, the Royals found themselves at 4/87 at the end of 10 overs, with skipper Powell also back in the pavilion.
Middle order falls short of the target
David Miller and Alick Athanaze played for a long period but failed to hit the big blows. Once both of them were out, it all came down to Jason Holder to do something special. When he walked in, the Royals needed 45 runs to win from 25 balls. But the big West Indian failed to make a winning impact and the Royals fell short by 13 runs.
The Royals will face Guyana Amazon Warriors next on Wednesday at the Providence Stadium in Guyana. The Royals had defeated the Warriors by 32 runs in their previous CPL 2024 match.