Shamsi spins Saint Lucia Kings into playoffs

Saint Lucia Kings decimated the high-flying Trinbago Knight Riders in Trinidad with 53 balls and 7 wickets to spare. The win was set up by Kings' spinners with Tabraiz Shamsi taking a three-fer while the spin duo of Khary Pierre and Roston Chase took a brace of wickets. By virtue of this win, the Kings became the second team, behind the Knight Riders, to qualify for the CPL 2025 playoffs.

TKR got off to a terrible start with Colin Munro departing second ball off Pierre. Darren Bravo hit a couple of lusty blows before top-edging one to the short fine-leg fielder. Nicholas Pooran got lucky a couple of times as the ball fell in between the fielders but he found his mojo with two consecutive sixes off David Wiese. But it got worse for TKR as Alex Hales fell on the last ball of the PowerPlay to leave the side three down.

The rub of the green continued to go the Kings way even after the first six as the introduction of Shamsi struck dividends immediately as he got Akeal Hosein for a first-ball duck. With the pitch continuing to aid spin and having spongy bounce, Pooran under-edged Chase to the 'keeper as TKR lost their fifth of the night within the first 10 overs. Andre Russell's counter-punch was short lived as Shamsi spun one to knock back his middle stump. Shamsi produced another ripper soon after to get rid of Kieron Pollard with the score at only 82. Terrence Hinds and Nathan Edwards took TKR past the 100-mark before Delano Potgeiter struck twice in an over, while Alzarri Joseph finished the innings with the wicket of Edwards.

Tim Seifert began the reply in style. He smashed 14 runs off the first over with two boundaries and a six to get the innings up and running. He continued to back his shots with back-to-back boundaries off Sunil Narine but his partner Johnson Charles miscued one to long-on at the end of Narine's over. Seifert and Ackeem Auguste then put on a crucial 40-run stand with the latter being the aggressor. Hosein continued to be expensive while Russell was greeted with a 20-run over by Auguste. Seifert fell for a well-made 36 while Auguste's menacing knock was cut short by Narine. Chase found some timely boundaries while David smashed two sixes as the Kings wrapped up a flawless performance.

Brief Scores: Trinbago Knight Riders 109 in 18.1 overs (Nicholas Pooran 30, Nathan Edwards 17; Tabraiz Shamsi 3-12, Roston Chase 2-19) lost to Saint Lucia Kings 112/3 in 11.1 overs (Tim Seifert 36, Ackeem Auguste 28; Sunil Narine 2-28, Usman Tariq 1-26) by seven wickets