West Indies left-arm spinner Khary Pierre nearly pulled off a heist in the CPL 2025 Qualifier 1 for St Lucia Kings against the Guyana Amazon Warriors on Wednesday (September 17).
Put in to bat first, Guyana looked set for a big score at 83-2 after 11 overs, but a middle order collapse ensured they could only manage 157. Pierre, who was recently named in the West Indies Test squad for the India tour - his first call-up in the longest format - opened the bowling for St Lucia and slipped in four quiet overs for 19 runs, although without picking up any wickets. Fellow tweaker Tabraiz Shamsi picked up 3-33.
Qualifier 1, Saint Lucia Kings vs Guyana Amazon Warriors
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Khary Pierre almost pulls off CPL Qualifier run-chase
St Lucia collapsed big time as soon as their chase began, slipping to 12-3 inside the third over. A slight recovery took them to 40-3 only for them to fall back to 48-7.
Just when all hope seemed lost, Pierre, who walked out to bat at No.8 at the score of 44, staged a miraculous fightback. He first added 37 runs with Alzarri Joseph for the eighth wicket in 4.3 overs, before stitching another crucial 32-run ninth-wicket partnership in 3.4 overs with Tymal Mills.
In the process, Pierre completed his first-ever T20 half-century, off just 29 balls, reaching the milestone with a six. In fact, he hit five sixes in his knock, having only hit one maximum across his entire professional T20 career of 80 matches before this one.
Another measure of just how astonishing his assault was, is that his previous highest score in the format was just 15, which he made three years back. In fact, this knock of 50 currently accounts for 39.3 per cent of all runs he has scored in his T20 career, which began in 2017. In first-class cricket, Pierre has a fifty and a century to his name, averaging 21.59 with the bat.
Unfortunately for St Lucia Kings, Pierre's blitz wasn't enough to take them over the line. He was dismissed in the 17th over at the score of 117 with the team still needing 41 runs for victory. Mills fought bravely, adding 26 runs for the final wicket with Shamsi, but they fell 14 runs short.
Gudakesh Motie, whose place Pierre would be taking in the West Indies Test squad for the India series, picked up 4-30 for Guyana, following on from his five-wicket haul in the previous match.
Also read: 5-21 & 4-30: West Indies Test spinner rested for India series shines in consecutive CPL games
The victory has taken Guyana to the final, scheduled for September 21, while St Lucia Kings will now face Trinbago Knight Riders in Qualifier 2 on Friday (September 19).
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