Before Chase and Jones quieted the home crowd, the Kings were down 139 at 51 for 4.
Six wickets separated Guyana Amazon Warriors’ 138 for 8 (Pretorius 25, Noor 3-19, Forde 1-11) and St Lucia Kings’ 139 for 4 (Jones 48*, Chase 39, Sinclair 1-4).
St. Lucia’s very own Daren Sammy and his Kings earned the region its first CPL title, quieting a packed house at the Providence two months after sprinter Julien Alfred delivered the island nation’s first Olympic gold medal.
On a slow, two-paced surface, the fans pealed loudest when Guyana Amazon Warriors reduced Kings to 51 for 4 in their chase of 139. Kings failed to score a boundary in nine overs. Roston Chase was suffering from a disease. Since Aaron Jones was having so much trouble, Sammy thought of benching him. The four-pronged spin onslaught of Amazon Warriors had its opponents daydreaming of consecutive titles.
But Jones turned the tables on them, dashed their hopes. Jones, who had been on 10 off 19 balls, quickly shot up to 38 off his next 12 balls, establishing an unbroken 88-run partnership with Chase, a five-season Kings player.
Chase finished off a fantastic week in which he also earned a CWI central contract by playing the Marlon Samuels position, something he has been doing for West Indies for a time.
Amazon Warriors decelerate from their sprint.
On a slow pitch, Amazon Warriors were selected to bat first and were only able to muster 27 runs in the powerplay before Rahmanullah Gurbaz (0) was removed from the game after he had picked out mid-on in the opening over. In 13 games this season, this was the second fewest runs the Amazon Warriors had scored in the opening six overs.
During this phase, Khary Pierre, who had mostly been hidden behind Sunil Narine and Akeal Hosein at Trinbago Knight Riders, emerged victorious with 2-0-6-1. when handcuffing Moeen Ali with wide lines, Alzarri Joseph was bowled out for 14 off 20 balls by Noor Ahmad when he misplayed a slog-sweep to midwicket. Then, after forcing Shimron Hetmyer to carve his stock ball to sweeper cover for 11 off nine balls, Noor also grabbed the coveted scalp of Hetmyer in his subsequent over.
Before Chase bowled him out with a low offbreak, Shai Hope scored 22 off 24 balls. At the end of Noor’s tenure, Amazon Warriors were 102 for 7 in 18 overs. His numbers were 4-0-19-3.
With 22 wickets at the end of the season, Noor became the only player in the league to have more wickets in a season (2015) since CPL great Dwayne Bravo.
Shepherd and Pretorius quicken the pace
Because of the powerful hitting of their finisher Romario Shepherd and Dwaine Pretorius—who won Player of the Match in the CPL 2023 final—Amazon Warriors ultimately had a reasonably competitive total on the board. In the final two overs, they combined for three sixes and two fours, which gave Amazon Warriors a total of 36 runs.
The Amazon Warriors make a comeback!
After seeing Johnson Charles, one of the Kings’ stars this season, chop on for seven off ten balls, Shepherd struck with the new ball. Shepherd left the pitch feeling a little uncomfortable after bowling that delivery that took a wicket.
The slower bowlers for Amazon Warriors then put the pressure on the Kings, as they lost three wickets in as many overs in the form of Faf du Plessis, Ackeem Auguste, and their new signing Tim Seifert, all from New Zealand. After that, Chase and Jones reunited, but they were unable to remove the boundaries.
Jones and Chase complete it for the Kings
The storm arrived after the quiet. In the 16th over, which saw 27 runs, the two set up Moeen’s off-spin for a run and six, six, four, six. They grabbed the game out of Amazon Warriors’ hands in an instant.
In the subsequent over, Jones pursued Pretorius as well, scoring 20 runs off the 17th over. Shepherd went back to the bowl, but the Amazon Warriors were already out of the game.
Jones’s six-hitting gave a flashback to his undefeated 94 from 40 balls in the 2024 T20 World Cup opener, and he celebrated those maximums with expressive fist pumps. Jones’ comeback to the CPL as a local player (thanks to his Barbados passport) was made possible by that globe event, and he made the evening unforgettable for both Kings and himself. The picture of Coach Sammy giving Jones a bear hug will be among the most memorable from the Kings’ historic season.
