Saint Lucia Kings vs Guyana Amazon Warriors, Final - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

And with that we bid goodbye to yet another wonderful edition of the Caribbean Premier League. Hope you loved our coverage, and all the thrills and spills of course. If you have followed this game from India, your alarms can now have a deserved rest. No more early morning blues. Lots of exciting cricket happening all around the globe. Do remember to check this space for all the latest as Raju Peethala alongside Saurabh Shankar, Nikhil Jadhav and Siva chorus out 'cheers' before wishing you a happy rest of the October. Ta!!

Curtains, then, on CPL 2024. As ever, we had a mix of all the natural ingredients you expect in this tournament. High scores, individual brilliance, spin-to-win trends, stunning catches, rain-interruptions, floodlight shenanigans, DRS drama, player banter and some mind-boggling ball striking of course. They say this is the biggest party in sport and Daren Sammy, although as a coach, once again found a way to bring the best out of his side when the chips were down. "Talk is cheap. Cricket is a game of action. You can talk all you want. It is the action that happens on the field that?matters" A decade to those awe-inspiring words from Sammy (When West Indies won the semi-final against Australia in 2014 T20 World Cup). Whatever message?Sammy sent into the?middle at the start of 16th over, it certainly had a similar impact to bring the desired outcome. Stuff of champions!!

And here comes the moment. Faf gets the trophy and he now walks up to his team-mates ala Ric Flair strut. Slow and steady. Keeping the boys waiting and now the cap of the bottle (read the fizz) comes off. The trophy goes aloft and so does the champagne sparks and spirit of the group. Now they pose behind the champions hoarding as the fireworks take off. Variety of poses, too many emotions and a dream fulfilled for the Sant Lucia fans.

Faf du Plessis | Saint Lucia skipper: Happy for the guys, they have been?here (Sammy and Co.) for a long time. Think 10 or 15 years they have been waiting for the trophy to come home. Very happy with the bowling effort. At the toss I wasn't quite sure what to do and I felt like when they posted 138, when we walked off we were positive. I think in both the innings, last 2-3 overs really made the difference. The ball gets a little bit wet and kept skidding on, that made the big difference. Someone like Johnno (Charles) has had a great tournament, myself and him had a good season, but we spoke about there willl be an opportunity for someone to be the man and for Jones it is tonight and for Roston Chase to absorb the pressure and finish was incredible. They bowled really well and at one stage I thought the game was drifting away from us and when the rate was creeping up, we thought we can't leave it for too late, so we sent a message out to the guys to have a crack and then they started playing some great shots. The group of guys here, no superstars, we had different guys putting their hand up at different stages of the competition, so as a team I am really extremely proud of the guys. There was an excitement at the start of the competition in St Lucia about is this gonna be the season. First CPL trophy and it is a great achievement.

Imran Tahir | Guyana skipper: We didn't start well with the bat and kept losing wickets, and didn't get enough score in the end, that was the only fault I could see. But we had an excellent tournament, tough lucky today somethings didn't go our way. A few LBWs didn't hit the stumps. We had a little idea about it, 170-180 would have been a good score, we bowled really well as a group but one over took the game away from us. Moeen has been the go-to bowler for us this tournament and it can happen to anyone and that is how the game goes. We had a lot of dot balls and we needed him (Shepherd with the bat) for the last 4-5 overs, that was the perfect stage for him and he did brilliantly, but the top order missed a few things and I think that cost us the game. We had the belief in us and I am really proud of the boys and the way we played the whole tournament. Congrats to Bravo on an excellent carrer and wish him all the best.

Time for the match officials to collect their medals. Followed closely by the distribution of runners-up and winners medals from the President of Guyana Irfaan Ali...

Noor Ahmad | Player of the tournament: Thanks to Almighty for making me able to deliver for my team. Great day for me and St Lucia. I assessed the conditions and bowled according to that. We played 3 games here before today and we had good planning. We just went through the planning and that is what gave us good success. From the first day we had the belief that we will be champions of this tournament.

Jewel Andrew gets the 'Emerging player of the year' award. He also became the youngest player to score a CPL fifty this season...

Roston Chase | Player of the Match: Great feeling, I made to 2 finals I lost I was heartbroken, but today I was like it can't happen and God gave me strength to do it. We always have the match-up in mind, especially with the ball. At that stage, the game was still close and the rate kept going up. When the rate went up to 13 I told Aaron we need a big over and Aaron expressed himself and told he will take on Moeen and he played a brilliant knock.

Mohit Burman | Team Owner: We have been involved here since 4 years. By the grace of God, we’ve been in two finals and this year we won it all, truly happy and thankful to the team. Great year for St.Lucia, firstly winning the gold in the Olympics and now the CPL. Daren is from St Lucia and he is the coach of West Indies as well. When we first brought the team he was a player here too. Faf is an all time great, he’s been playing cricket for God knows how long and done amazingly well at the IPL. Between the coach and the captain, they put in a great team together and this is where we are at tonight, the CPL champions. We have been putting in a lot of hard work - the infrastructure and the thought into the game for the past 16 years. We are yet to win the IPL, but certainly this will give us the confidence to build a great team there as well.

Faf du Plessis: It has been special. We have been really consistent throughout the competition. A superb final, we had a lot of ebbs and flows, at one stage I thought it is time to go pack our bags. But right through the tournament we kept saying that we believe a lot in the depth of the squad, obviously myself and Charles had some good partnerships but we kept saying there will be an opportunity for the other guys to put in a match winning performance. What a day to do it in a final, the way Roston Chase and Aaron Jones performed, what a partnership. It is a great crowd and from their perspective, it is really nice to play the knockouts here. If as the opposition you lose a couple of wickets, you feel that intensity from the crowd. And that’s a big thing because every dot ball adds pressure if you are chasing. To come here to their home ground and beat them twice takes a special team performance.

Ackeem Auguste: I’m really excited and happy for the guys, it has been an amazing year for St.Lucia. It was some nerves but playing amongst so many experienced guys I always felt like we would not win. We always backed ourselves for the victory. (On Faf du Plessis) I just try to emulate a lot of what he does, he is always a calm person. I’m just really happy, congrats to the guys. Well played to Aaron Jones and Roston Chase.

David Wiese: It has been fantastic. We developed a good culture, we had one goal to not just make it to the final but to win the whole thing. We were given a lot of confidence and we were told to have fun while expressing our skills. The past 2-3 years we have been playing together and this is just the culmination of a great night. I think it is a privilege to play a final, you got to soak it in and enjoy the moment. There are four other teams who would have enjoyed to be here, so if there is a moment where you feel overwhelmed just take a deep breath and realise it is a privilege to be here and just enjoy the moment.

Johnson Charles: This means everything. We always said it is our year. Everyone is waiting for it for so long, everyone in St Lucia is in a sea of blue. I still feel I can have an even better year with the bat, I want to do even better and work even harder to defend our title next year. That’s what kings do, they defend titles.

Alzarri Joseph: I’m relaxed and very happy to win the CPL with this franchise. They took me four years ago when I didn’t have no other choices, so staying 4 years with them, winning this title is brilliant. It is a really good franchise, such a great opportunity to play for the Kings. We have been in 2 finals and haven’t got over the line. We were behind the eight ball today but we always believed.

Roston Chase: Means a lot, I’ve been in two finals before but I made my mind to not leave here without the cup. I’ve been a bit sick, had diarrhea and viral infection, but I took my meds and I just prayed to the Lord and asked me to give me the strength for this one last game. The message came out and I told Jonesy this has to be a big over when Moeen Ali came on, just hit the ball as hard as you can. Told him we are not looking back from here, whoever comes has to go. He took on Pretorius and we had another big over and the game was in the balance. But I told him don’t let anyone else come here, we are going to take it till the end. Just stay positive and don’t do anything silly.

Daren Sammy: I’ll tell you something, five days ago, Aaron Jones said to me that he will win me the CPL final, I swear to God. And we made one chance today, because the way he looked me in the eye when he said that, I believed that. We did send a message that the Moeen over had to go for plenty. He would his rhythm and I guess the message was well delivered.

Aaron Jones: We always knew it would be a challenge, everyone in the camp was confident. I tried to get in and the coach and senior players told me that I’m the one to take the risk. I believe in myself as a match winner. I knew I had to take my chances in that over against Moeen Ali, very happy that it all paid off.

So, how did they ace this with 11 balls to spare when they needed 66 off 30? Whatever the message Sammy sent, it worked wonders. A long pause before the start of the 16th over where the sub fielder clearly suggested the batters to get a move on, but not even the best of optimists would have expected the pace at which the turnaround unfolded. It was too quick. Blink and you miss stuff. Jones carted the first ball of the 16th over from Moeen Ali for a 100-metre maximum, and put Chase on strike for the third ball. Chase was in no mood to settle for nudge and nurdle anymore. He had his plans crystal clear as the senior statesman. Moeen Ali's next 4 balls went for 6 4 6 6 as the Kings brought the equation down to 39 off 24. Guyana then used their best bowler of the day, Pretorius, who conceded just 5 in 2 overs (also picked the crucial wicket of Seifert). The damage was already done, and Pretorius was met with 2 sixes and the bleeding never stopped. 18 off the next over from Shepherd and skipper Tahir's wide only helped the ball avoid some extra pasting at the end. Plenty of post-match reactions coming up, stay tuned...

23:05 local, 03:05 GMT, 08:35 IST = First title for Saint Lucia Kings. When Guyana scored 36 off the last 2 overs, there was a clear shift in momentum although they ended up scoring just, I daresay, 138. So much was the shift that Guyana started brilliantly with the ball and had the Saint Lucia Kings stumbling at 51/4 by the end of 10 overs. Faf, Charles, Auguste, Seifert all back in the hut before the halfway mark, and things looked even more doom and gloom when the pair of Chase and Jones added just 22 off the next 5 overs. What's more? Not a single boundary for 61 balls (from 4.6 to 14.6 ), digest that! There was no energy, no intent and one could spot a spike of frustration in the dressing room with coach Sammy calling one of the sub players to send what now looks like a game-changing message to the middle.