Faf du Plessis Emulates Rohit Sharma's Iconic T20 World Cup Moment as Preity Zinta's Saint Lucia Kings Reign Victorious in CPL 2024

In a historic moment for the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), the Saint Lucia Kings have been crowned champions for the first time. After only making the playoffs once in their first seven years in the league, the Kings started to show promise in 2020 by reaching their first-ever final. The following year, they were taken over by the IPL franchise Punjab Kings, and once again made it to the final. Under the leadership of T20 World Cup-winning captain Daren Sammy as head coach, the Kings continued their streak of making at least the playoffs and finally achieved their long-awaited victory in 2024. In a thrilling finale, the Kings defeated the Guyana Amazon Warriors by six wickets to claim their first ever CPL title.

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.

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.”