Twitter Reactions: Skipper Chris Gayle guides Patriots to their maiden final with an unbeaten 54

Man of the match Chris Gayle scored an unbeaten 54 off 51 balls.

By Sayantan Bhattacharjee

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Tabraiz Shamsi and Chris Gayle celebrate the dismissal of Shadab Khan
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Tabraiz Shamsi and Chris Gayle celebrate the dismissal of Shadab Khan. (Photo by Randy Brooks – CPL T20 via Getty Images)

Skipper Chris Gayle led St Kitts and Nevis Patriots from the front with an unbeaten 54 off 51 balls, as they stormed into the final with a 38-run win. The Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad witnessed the first qualifier of the CPL, and more importantly, a turnaround by the bottom placed team of last season. This is the first time Patriots have made it to the finals in the history of CPL.

With injured Brendon McCullum out of the team, the Trinbago Knight Riders could not hold on to their cards and fell off cheaply. Apart from 28-year old Darren Bravo, no one really took the matter in their own hands. Sheldon Cottrell scalped three wickets in his four overs, and Mohammad Hafeez once again turned out to be the most economical bowler. The Pakistan international bowled four overs for 11 runs and picked up the wicket of Dan Christian.

The target of 150 looked too good for the Knight Riders, and apart from the skipper Gayle, who grabbed the man of the match award, Brandon King chipped in with a 26-ball 30. Ronsford Beaton was impressive for the Knight Riders, as he ended the innings with figures of 2/22 in his four overs. But it was the skipper DJ Bravo, who restricted the Patriots to 149, as at one point it looked like Gayle and company would go past 170.

Post the win, victorious skipper Gayle said”Back to back finals for me, first time for Patriots, it was a good game even though it was a slower wicket. Wanted to reach 150 to give our teams a chance. Our spinners came into the play and happy to represent our fans in the Leeward Islands (where Hurricane Irna has been causing a lot of storms), and give our fans something to cheer about. We needed composure to come out on top. When I decided to go for the big shots, we were losing wickets, so I had to hold back. A slow wicket, a slow inning from me. Just excited to be in the final, to be honest. To take a team from nothing to the final is great.”

Let’s have a look at how Twitterati reacted to Patriots maiden march to the finals:

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