Saint Lucia Kings Into CPL Final!

The Saint Lucia Kings have qualified for this year’s Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) finals, defeating the Guyana Amazon Warriors in a rain-affected match at Providence Stadium in Guyana on Wednesday. The Kings blasted their way to 69 runs during the powerplay, buoyed mainly by a brutal innings from Saint Lucia’s Johnson Charles. Charles went on to score 79, silencing the raucous Guyanese crowd in the early overs. The Amazon Warriors eventually broke the stellar 124-run opening stand between Charles and captain Faf du Plessis (57). Roston Chase, Tim Seifert, and David Wiese helped the Kings reach 198-5 after 20 overs. The pick of the bowlers for the Amazon Warriors was Moeen Ali, who took 2 for 24. With the ball, Khary Pierre, Matthew Forde, Alzarri Joseph, and Noor Ahmad combined to restrict the Warriors to 43 runs for the loss of one during the powerplay. They continued to take wickets while severely limiting the Warriors’ scoring, until rain halted play after the 13th over. At the stop of play, the Kings were ahead via the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method. The rain continued so heavily that play could not resume, securing the Kings’ victory by 15 runs under DLS and...