ST JOHN’S, An­tigua — The An­tigua and Bar­bu­da Fal­cons are cham­pi­ons of the Caribbean Pre­mier League for the first time, clinch­ing the ti­tle with a com­mand­ing per­for­mance on Sun­day night that cap­tain Moeen Ali de­scribed as the cul­mi­na­tion of a “tough but great jour­ney.”

Speak­ing af­ter the vic­to­ry, an elat­ed Moeen Ali em­pha­sised that the tri­umph meant more than just per­son­al glo­ry.

“Yeah, very spe­cial. I think more for the fran­chise, more for the play­ers, coach­ing staff, and every­body that was in­volved,” Moeen said. “It’s been a tough jour­ney, but a great jour­ney. Time has gone quick­ly for us be­cause we’ve en­joyed each oth­er’s com­pa­ny, and you can see on the field the way we played.”

The Eng­lish all-rounder praised his side’s re­silience through­out the cam­paign, high­light­ing the fi­nal per­for­mance as the pin­na­cle of their ef­forts.

“I thought tonight was an out­stand­ing per­for­mance again, and I’m re­al­ly pleased with the way we per­formed through­out the com­pe­ti­tion. It was a de­cent fight in the end. I mean, the dew made a big dif­fer­ence, but it was a great touch to win.”

Moeen, who joined the squad mid­way through the sea­son, re­vealed that the turn­ing point came dur­ing an ear­ly stint in Saint Lu­cia, where he saw the po­ten­tial in the group de­spite a nar­row loss.

“Hon­est­ly, in that game I played in Saint Lu­cia, we were on­ly de­fend­ing 57 off 10 overs, and we al­most won. From there, I saw fight and great de­ter­mi­na­tion from the guys, and I thought at least there’s some­thing great to work with,” he re­called.

The cap­tain ad­mit­ted that bal­anc­ing the team’s com­po­si­tion was a tac­ti­cal chal­lenge, es­pe­cial­ly with in­juries forc­ing changes to the line­up. How­ev­er, he cred­it­ed the depth of the squad, specif­i­cal­ly nam­ing Rah­keem Corn­wall and Fabi­an Allen, for step­ping up when it mat­tered most.

“Hav­ing two wrist-spin­ners, two pace guys up top, and then two death bowlers, it’s not al­ways easy to com­bine. But I think the biggest dif­fer­ence was the play­ers who came in and out for a cou­ple of in­juries. Guys like Rah­keem Corn­wall and Fabi­an Allen com­ing in and out. It wasn’t easy, but they made a huge dif­fer­ence. Qual­i­ty play­ers who al­ways give every­thing.”

Head coach Paul Nixon echoed his cap­tain’s sen­ti­ments, laud­ing the com­mit­ment of the squad and the “world-class” sup­port staff.

“The guys have been im­mense all year. We’ve been so com­mit­ted, so clear. Moeen has been an ex­cep­tion­al cap­tain,” Nixon said. “Every­body’s had an im­pact in the team and the dress­ing room, and it’s been amaz­ing. The back­room staff’s analy­sis has been world-class.”

Nixon made spe­cial men­tion of wick­et­keep­er-bat­ter Amir Jan­goo, who played a piv­otal role in the fi­nal, de­scrib­ing the win as a hum­bling ex­pe­ri­ence.

“Amir Jan­goo had a great com­pe­ti­tion and saw it through in style. So proud, so hum­bled, love­ly. Amaz­ing peo­ple; sur­round your­self with qual­i­ty,” Nixon added, ded­i­cat­ing the win to the An­tiguan faith­ful who backed the team through­out the sea­son.

CMC