The Saint Lucia Kings claimed their first victory of the 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with a thrilling win over the Trinbago Knight Riders by five runs. The loss means that the defending champions, who were unbeaten last season, have lost two of their three matches this season.

Tim David was once again the star for the Kings with 43 from 32 balls that saw his side post 157/5 from their 20 overs.

The Knight Riders looked to take the game deep thanks to a brilliant 40 from 16 balls from Tim Seifert but the Kings claimed a last-ball win.

The Kings started brightly after being put in to bat with Andre Fletcher and Rahkeem Cornwall putting on 51 for the first wicket. It was Cornwall who went first, when he lobbed a ball from Ravi Rampaul to extra cover.

A burst of three wickets for the addition of just four runs pegged back the Kings and they looked to rebuild. A partnership of 68 between Roston Chase and Tim David brought the Kings back into the match with Chase playing the anchor role to David’s more aggressive approach.

An enterprising stand between Chase and Keemo Paul took the Kings to 157-5 with Chase finishing on 30 not out. The Kings bowlers kept things tight at the start with the Knight Riders scoring at less than a run a ball inside the PowerPlay with Jeavor Royal particularly impressive with his left-arm spin.

In the face of some excellent bowling Lendl Simmons and Colin Munro struggled to kick on with Simmons falling to Paul for 25 from 30 balls. At the fall of Simmons wicket, the Knight Riders needed 88 from 43 balls.

When Kieron Pollard fell for nine from 10 balls it was down to the New Zealand pair of Munro and Tim Seifert to get their side home. Seifert’s brilliant hitting took his team tantalizingly close to a victory, but Wahab Riaz successfully defended 14 runs from the final over.

“It’s a crazy game but we love it,” said Kings captain Faf Du Plessis, who revealed that the pressure of the situation in the last two overs almost cost them the game as Keemo Paul gave up 21 runs in the 19th over that got TKR back in the game needing 14 from the final over.

“That’s what pressure does. We thought about Wahab’s experience bowling the second-last over but we were worried about the short boundary from that end. The nature of this pitch is that you always have to bat deep. It’s not a 180 wicket. You need to drag it late. And our spinners squeezed it well.”

Meanwhile, Pollard, who was losing his second game of the season, believed his team gave away too many runs.

“We gave 15 runs too much, but we can’t fault our bowlers. They have bowled well this season,” he said. “Some issues with the batting 61 dots are not a big problem because you rather get dots than get out. Munro was alright, he dug in there and Seifert nearly got us over the line.”

Saint Lucia Kings 157-5 (David 42, Chase 30*;  Wahab 1-17, Chase 1-17) beat Trinbago Knight Riders 152-3 (Munro 40*, Seifert 40*; Hosein 3-27, Rampaul 3-29) by five runs.