South African batter Rilee Rossouw returned to the CPL playing for the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots. However, the southpaw didn’t have a great outing in the opening game, being dismissed for a duck. The Patriots, though, did get off the mark with a new team and under new leadership.
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, who have won just two games in their last 20 in the 2023 and 2024 seasons of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), began their campaign in the 13th edition of the tournament with a solid win against the Antigua and Barbuda Falcons. The Patriots, with a slightly different setup in terms of personnel and leadership with a new captain (Jason Holder) and a new coach (Simon Helmot), seemed to have added a few quality players, in particular, the UAE spinner Waqar Salamkheil, who picked up a four-fer on his debut for the side.
The Patriots chased down the target of 122 runs in just 15 overs and provided a booster shot to their net run rate as well. The hosts lost four wickets while chasing the total down, and even though they would have liked to lose one less wicket, they will be glad to start the tournament with a win. Among the four wickets to fall for the Patriots was the South African international, Rilee Rossouw, got out to the big man Rahkeem Cornwall for a duck.
This was the 34th duck for Rossouw in T20 cricket, the joint-fifth most for any player as he equalled Jason Roy on the unwanted list and entered the top five. The list is led by Sunil Narine, who has 50 ducks to his name in the format, the only player to achieve an embarrassing half-century.
Most ducks scored in T20 cricket
50 – Sunil Narine (362 innings)
46 – Rashid Khan (289 innings)
45 – Alex Hales (499 innings)
37 – Glenn Maxwell (454 innings)
34 – Rilee Rossouw (364 innings)
34 – Jason Roy (399 innings)
Evin Lewis scored a quickfire 25 before Alick Athanaze and skipper Holder, the two players traded from the Barbados Royals, saw their team through with an unbeaten stand of 49 runs. The Falcons, on the other hand, will look at their batting effort and rue the lack of partnerships to get to a score of 150-160, which would have been respectable on a surface which was taking turn.