GROS ISLET – A spec­tac­u­lar open­ing part­ner­ship be­tween Tim Seifert and John­son Charles pow­ered the Saint Lu­cia Kings to a dom­i­nant sev­en-wick­et vic­to­ry over the St Kitts & Nevis Pa­tri­ots in Saint Lu­cia on Thurs­day and pro­pelled them to the top of the Re­pub­lic Bank Caribbean Pre­mier League.

Af­ter be­ing sent in to bat at the Daren Sam­my Na­tion­al Crick­et Sta­di­um, the Pa­tri­ots post­ed 177 for three in their 20 overs, thanks main­ly to Mo­ham­mad Rizwan’s un­beat­en half cen­tu­ry.

How­ev­er, Seifert smashed 68 off 45 balls and Charles blud­geoned 47 from just 17 de­liv­er­ies, set­ting the per­fect launch pad for the Kings who then coast­ed to 180 for three in 17 overs.

Charles was sav­age ear­ly on, hit­ting Kyle May­ers for a six and two fours in the third over that went for 18 runs.

The duo was es­pe­cial­ly bru­tal on leg spin­ner Navin Bidaisee, clob­ber­ing him for two six­es and two fours in the sixth over that leaked 21 runs, as the Kings mo­tored to 64 with­out loss af­ter five overs.

Left-arm spin­ner Waqar Salamkheil was struck for two con­sec­u­tive six­es by Charles, but got the break­through by hav­ing him caught to make the score 85 for one in the sev­enth over.

In all, Charles struck five fours and four six­es in his de­struc­tive knock.

Seifert found a re­li­able part­ner in new bat­ter Ac­k­eem Au­guste, with the pair adding 60 runs in six overs to put their side in to­tal con­trol.

Along the way Seifert brought up his half cen­tu­ry off 35 balls by re­verse sweep­ing Salamkheil for four.

By the time pac­er Naseem Shah dis­missed Au­guste for 29 off 20 balls to leave the score 145 for two in the 13th over, the Kings were well on their way to vic­to­ry.

Seifert even­tu­al­ly lost his wick­et af­ter smash­ing six fours and four six­es, but Ros­ton Chase (15 not out) and Tim David (16 not out) took their side to vic­to­ry with 18 balls to spare.

The win car­ried them to the top of the ta­ble on eight points from their six games with a 3-1 record.

Ear­li­er, the Pa­tri­ots pro­duced a sol­id bat­ting per­for­mance, if not spec­tac­u­lar, on their way to post­ing a com­pet­i­tive to­tal.

Evin Lewis and An­dre Fletch­er put on 47 runs in­side six overs for the first wick­et, be­fore Chase had Lewis caught for a run-a-ball 18.

Play­er-of-the-Match, Tabraiz Sham­si, who bowled im­pres­sive­ly to snag 2-17 from his four overs, then ac­count­ed for Fletch­er’s wick­et af­ter he scored 37 from 23 balls, to leave the Pa­tri­ots 69 for two.

Rizwan and Kyle May­ers then added 71 runs for the third wick­et, but were un­able to ful­ly break free from the shack­les of the Kings’ bowlers.

In the end, Rizwan fin­ished on 60 not out off 41 balls, in­clu­sive of four six­es and three fours, and the Pa­tri­ots end­ed with a flour­ish by col­lect­ing 37 runs off the last three overs.

Sum­marised scores

PA­TRI­OTS 177-3 in 20 overs (Mo­ham­mad Rizwan 60 not out, An­dre Fletch­er 37, Kyle May­ers 27, Ja­son Hold­er 21 not out, Evin Lewis 18; Tabraiz Sham­si 2-17).

KINGS 180-3 in 17 overs (Tim Seifert 68, John­son Charles 47, Ac­k­eem Au­guste 29, Tim David 16 not out, Ros­ton Chase 15 not out; Naseem Shah 2-35).

Saint Lu­cia Kings won by sev­en wick­ets.

CMC