BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots have found a comfortable pattern in losing games at this year’s Caribbean Premier League as they went under to the St. Lucia Zouks in their latest match.
Playing in Castries at the newly-renamed Darren Sammy Stadium, once again the Patriots batting failed to live up to expectations as they lost by 35 runs to be eliminated from the Playoffs Contention.
Winning the toss, Patriots elected to bowl on a track suited for batting and the Zouks batsmen put the SKN bowlers to the proverbial sword as they piled on 174 for 9 off the allotted 20 overs.
Captain Darren Sammy showed why he was one of the most fearful T20 batsmen on the international circuit, when he hammered a quick-fire 59 from 35 balls that included three fours and five sixes.
In reply, the Patriots were cruising at 123 for 5 when their batting collapsed and saw the team folding for 139 inside their allotted overs.
Captain Faf du Plessis top scored with a defiant 48 from 37 balls while Jerome Taylor and Delorn Johnson rocked the top and middle orders with figures of 2 for 19 and 3 for 26 respectively.
This is the seventh defeat for the Patriot in eight matches, with their lone victory coming against the same unit in the Federation when they scored in excess of 200 runs.
Despite his team’s defeat and poor bowling performance, young paceman Alzarri Joseph was still upbeat.
He told reporters at a post-match conference that his team was again short in the batting department despite scoring well at the start of the innings, noting that they found the going difficult in the middle period of the game.
Joseph, who was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4 for 41 from his four overs, said his team needs to return to the drawing board, change a few things and play hard in their two remaining matches.
