Saint Lucia Kings To Clash With Nevis Patriots In CPL 2021 Final
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots defeated Guyana Amazon Warriors by seven wickets to enter the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) final where they will meet Saint Lucia Kings who beat defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders by 21 runs in the other semi-final.
The Patriots won the toss and elected to bowl.
Despite a bright start from the Amazon Warriors' openers Brandon King (27 off 17) and Chandrapaul Hemraj (27 off 24), wickets tumbled in the middle overs before a late burst from Shimron Hetmyer (45 off 20 balls) took his side to a substantial 178/9. Nicholas Pooran chipped in with 26 off 14 balls.
In their chase, the Patriots once again opted to open with Chris Gayle, and he laid the platform for a successful chase with 42 off 27 balls, lashing the ball into the stands on numerous occasions. Evin Lewis (77 off 39 balls) then took over to guide his side to a crushing victory.
Lewis hammered eight sixes and three fours.
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots reached their highest powerplay score of this year's CPL, with Gayle and Lewis bringing up 68-0 after the first six overs.
In the other semi-final, a high-scoring affair, Saint Lucia Kings eliminated defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders.
The Saint Lucia Kings won the toss and chose to bat. No. 3 batsman Mark Deyal (78 off 44 balls; 5x4s, 6x6s) got the side off to a flying start and they maintained a high intensity throughout the innings, as Tim David (38 not out off 17 balls) and David Wiese (34 off 21 balls) combined to cause carnage in the latter overs, taking the side to a mammoth 205/4 after their 20 overs. Both David and Wiese added unbeaten 75 runs in 5.4 overs.
Trinbago Knight Riders got off to a fast start in response but slowly unravelled amidst a growing run rate, as Wiese (5/39) took his second five wicket-haul of this year's CPL with his medium-pace to end their title defence as they finished on 184 all out.
Whoever wins the final, to be played on Wednesday night, will be the first-time champions.
Brief scores
Semi-final 1: Saint Lucia Kings 205/4 (M Deyal 78, T David 38; S Narine 1/12, A Hosein 1/27) beat Trinbago Knight Riders 184 all out (S Narine 30, D Ramdin 29; D Wiese 5/39, Paul 2/21) by 21 runs.
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Semi-final 2: Guyana Amazon Warriors 178-9 (S Hetmyer 45 not out, B King 27, C Hemraj 27; J Jaggesar 2/19, F Ahmed 2/22) lost to St Kitts and Nevis Patriots 181-3 (E Lewis 77 not out, C Gayle 42; O Smith 2/48, K Sinclair 1/31) by seven wickets.