For the first time in the Caribbean Premier League's (CPL) history, the Saint Lucia Kings were crowned champions. They only made the playoffs once in the first seven years of the league, but things began to take shape from 2020 onwards, when they made their first-ever final. A year later, they were acquired by Punjab Kings, the IPL franchise, and they made the final yet again. The streak of at least making the playoffs continued as T20 World Cup-winning captain Daren Sammy was added onboard as the head coach, and all efforts eventually brought the much-awaited result in 2024 with Kings beating Guyana Amazon Warriors by six wickets.

Saint Lucia at one stage, were struggling at 51 for 4 on the two-paced Providence track, where they had failed to score a boundary in nine straight overs in their chase of 139. Roston Chase battled illness, while Aaron Jones, who burst into fame with an impressive show for the USA in the T20 World Cup earlier in June, struggled to find his rhythm to the extent that Sammy thought of retiring him. However, the West Indies great gave Jones one last chance and sent out a message with 65 needed off the final 30 balls, and Jones turned the tables.

From scoring just 10 runs in the first 19 deliveries, Jones roared to 38 in the next 12 balls, en route to an 88-run unbeaten stand alongside Chase, which helped the Kings wrap up the chase with 11 balls to spare.

Following the win, captain Faf du Plessis, stunningly imitated India captain Rohit Sharma's famous celebration walk from the T20 World Cup title win in June, videos of which went viral. Rohit, in turn, had looked to mimic Argentina football legend Lionel Messi's act during the FIFA World Cup win in 2022, but fans reckoned and so did that WWE legend, that it looked more like a Ric Flair strut.

'We've been looking to get that trophy for a long time'

Du Plessis was visibly ecstatic after guiding Saint Lucia to their maiden CPL title win and emphasised on the significance of the victory for the franchise.

“This franchise has been looking to get that trophy for a long time. Against this opposition, in front of a big crowd—there's no bigger place to play a final,” du Plessis said in the post-match presentation. “I would have liked it a bit easier, to be honest!”

The former South Africa captain also hailed the Kings bowling line-up after they restricted Guyana to 138 for eight. He said: “I was very happy with the bowling. It was a decent decision [at the toss]. We were very positive to get that score. In our minds, we wanted to play very positively.”

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