CPL 2025, Match 1 Review: Salamkheil shines in Patriots win on opening night

Six teams. Six venues. 34 matches. Only one eventual winner. The 13th edition of Caribbean Premier League (CPL) got underway in Basseterre on Thursday night as the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots defeated Antigua & Barbuda Falcons in the first match, the Patriots running out winners by six wickets with 30 balls remaining.

Patriots skipper Jason Holder won the toss and elected to insert the Falcons, this turned out to be a shrewd move as only Karima Gore made a score of note for the latter. Gore survived a shaky start to post his maiden T20 half century, his 61 off 34 balls helped to stitch the visitor's batting effort together and saw the Falcons post 121 all out.

On a sticky pitch that helped the bowlers the batters found it hard to time all their shots but the Falcons target was below par and hauled in with relative ease by the Patriots.

The experienced hands of Alick Athanaze (37 off 28) and Jason Holder (18 off 14) saw Patriots over the line with five overs to go to cap off a commanding ​ performance to start to this year’s campaign.

It was an all-round performance from Holder’s side, the bowlers impressed earlier in the evening - left-arm wrist spinner Waqar Salamkheil was the star bowler for the Patriots and was named the Player of the Match for taking 4/22 off his four overs. ​ 

Pace men Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naseem Shah ably supported by bagging a couple of wickets each to keep the Falcons constantly pegged back and under pressure. The low total posted by the Falcons did not give their bowlers enough to work with and the Patriots were never in any danger despite Rahkeem Cornwall pocketing two wickets in one over.