CricViz analyst Freddie Wilde examines St Kitts & Nevis Patriots’ CPL so far.
Result Summary
| Match | v BT | v GAW | v SLZ | v BT | v SLZ | v JT | v GAW | v TKR | v JT | v TKR |
| Venue | BLCA | BLCA | BLCA | QPO | QPO | QPO | QPO | BLCA | BLCA | BLCA |
| Result | Lost | Lost | Lost | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Toss | Won | Lost | Won | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Bat | 2nd | 1st | 2nd | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Analysis
With no wins from their opening three matches the Patriots are firmly rooted to the bottom of the CPL table and their position in the points table reflects how they’ve played and strategised. Although their defeats to Barbados and Guyana became a bit tight at the end they were behind in the game for much of both contests and were fairly well beaten against St Lucia.
The Patriots headed into the season as a team with clear flaws—most notably death overs batting and spin bowling. However, poor form and selection have compounded these issues by denting areas of strength as well.
Poor form has hurt their potentially very dangerous top order batting. The Patriots are heavily-reliant on the performances of Chris Lynn, Evin Lewis and Ben Dunk but none of whom have yet made a meaningful contribution. Lewis and Dunk have twice made starts but neither have kicked on, while Lynn has struggled badly against spin. With such a flimsy middle order beneath them they have got to be ruthless when they get the opportunity. As it is their poor form has left the Patriots requiring inexperienced and, or weak T20 players to massively over-perform for them to remain competitive with the bat and aside from a useful cameo from Dinesh Ramdin against St Lucia Zouks that hasn’t happened.
| Bowler-Type | Balls | Runs | Wickets |
| v Pace | 21 | 31 | 0 |
| v Spin | 21 | 18 | 3 |
Pace bowling is the other strength of the Patriots but they were rocked by the injury to Sohail Tanvir for their second match and made things worse by leaving out Alzarri Joseph for that game and their third encounter. Joseph had a poor outing in their opening night defeat against the Barbados Tridents, taking 1 for 48 from his four overs, but he’s one of the best domestic pace bowlers in the league and Tanvir’s absence only made his presence as an international quick even more valuable. Joseph’s high pace and aggressive lengths were missed against St Lucia Zouks when a cameo from Mohammad Nabi—who struggles against such bowlers—propelled the Zouks to a big total.
It is indicative of the Patriots structural problems that despite reducing the Tridents to 8 for 3 in their opening fixture they still ended up on the losing side.
One clear bonus to emerge from their season so far had been the form of off spinner Jon-Russ Jaggesar. Spin bowling is a problem area for the Patriots but Jaggesar – brought into the team for the second match of the season against Guyana – has impressed in his two games so far, taking 2 for 52 from his eight overs, offering control and wicket-taking threat. Although he is an off spinner Jaggesar can bowl a carrom ball and both his wickets have come with the delivery against right-handers which should mean he can be a regular selection, regardless of the handedness of opposition batting orders.
Watching the Patriots opening three matches it was impossible not to think of Fabian Allen and how significantly his skills would improve this team. If you had to design a single player to improve St Kitts’ current team it would look a lot like Allen: a powerful death overs hitter and a useful left-arm spin bowler.
Alas, the Patriots are without Allen and they need to turn their results around quickly if they are to challenge for a top four spot. Realistically, with the squad they’ve got they aren’t likely to look rounded and well balanced and an upturn in results is likely to be driven simply by their stars: Lynn, Lewis, Dunk and Cottrell finding form.
Freddie Wilde is a CricViz analyst, @fwildecricket
