The 2021 edition of the Caribbean Premier League has now come to an end and what an end it was. The last ball finish by Dominic Drakes to win the first-ever Championship title for St Kitts and Nevis Patriots was nothing short of a dream finale for the fans and players alike. However, the finale was only a culmination of what has been a whirring season that gave a roller coaster ride feeling with matches being played at a very fast pace, sometimes even three games in one day.
In all this madness, certain bowlers and batsmen made their mark with some brilliant display of talent and skills. We at OneCricket and CricketExchange narrowed down the top five bowlers and top five batsmen who stood out among the rest.
You can read about the top five bowlers here.
In the list of the top five batters though are some names that will now dazzle in the Indian Premier League too, but it is unfortunate that the most exhilarating batter and all-rounder Roston Chase wouldn’t be able to showcase his newfound avatar in the most-watched cricket league of the world.
Not rated very well as a T20 batsman, Chase was at another level altogether in this season of the CPL. Although in the first few games, Chase looked much like his usual self, consuming too many deliveries and putting pressure on the batsmen at the other end, playing in his usual Test style.
But it was against the Guyana Amazon Warriors that Chase unleashed himself. Scoring his first fifty of the season, Chase compiled his innings in a very crafty manner. First, he took his time settling in, but once he got the hang of the wicket, he made sure that he made up for the lost deliveries, eventually scoring 85 off just 50 deliveries. From there on, there was no stopping Chase as he chased the glory alongside his team, St Lucia Kings.
His next eight innings were 64, 51, 40, 30, 0, 56, 36, 43 and at the end of the season, the 29-year-old had to his kitty 446 runs at an average of almost 50 and at a strike rate of 144.
The fact that Lewis is always known to be an explosive batter and more often than not if he gets going in a season, he would be among the top five batters in any league is no surprise. Therefore him occupying second place in the list of top run-getters was one of the very reasons why his team St Kitts and Nevis Patriots were able to get to the final in the first place.
Lewis’ best innings however came in one of the most important games for the Patriots when they were facing the defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders and defeated them by a whopping eight-wicket courtesy of the century by Lewis which he hit off just 50 balls. In total, the left-hander hit 426 runs at an average of 47.33, striking at a rate of 163.21 runs per hundred balls.
However, Lewis couldn’t get going in the final though but Dominic Drakes made sure that didn’t really matter.
Another St Lucia Kings batter in the list and this time it is a foreign import all the way down from Singapore. It might be difficult for anybody to imagine that someone coming from Singapore would be touring all over the world and be playing in all leagues. He has now bought himself a ticket to the IPL as well and will be representing Royal Challengers Bangalore and all of that at the age of 25.
David was someone who first filled aggression into the Kings line-up which was lacking in the first two games, he went about his business in the usual manner of attack even when the chips were really down. In total, the right-hander batter scored 282 runs in 11 innings and remained unbeaten thrice to have an average of 35.25 and a strike rate of 146.11
Although in terms of most runs in the series, the next in the list would be Kings; skipper Faf du Plessis and Trinbago Knight Rider’s Colin Munro. But the impact that Rutheford had in the five-match winning run of the Patriots made him jump over those international stars and get himself registered in the top five batters list, just for his sheer brilliance.
Rutherford scored three half-centuries in the first four games of the Patriots and was leading the run charts before being rested by his team. Although when he came back, it wasn’t the same Rutherford and courtesy that he even missed on the bus for the West Indies T20 World Cup squad, of which he looked like a sure shot candidate.
It was most probably Chase, who peaked at the same time as Ruthefird went down that got his place in the defending Champions’ World Cup squad.
Anyhow, the left-hander scored 262 runs in 10 innings at an average of 37.42 and a strike rate of around 127. Courtesy of this, the 27-year-old has now got himself an IPL contract with Sunrisers Hyderabad as a replacement for Jonny Bairstow who pulled out at the last moment.
Captain of the Guyana Amazon Warriors, Pooran is also one such player who couldn’t really get going and was able to shine only in bits and pieces never finding a suitable number for himself to bat throughout the competition. But whenever he did shine, he showed exactly why is he rated so high by all.
Pooran’s best innings came against Jamaica Tallwahs in a must-win game for the Warriors where he scored 75 off just 39 balls, hitting four fours and seven sixes on his way to his first and only fifty of the season.
There were other meaningful contributions by the 25-year-old as well as he scored a total of 263 runs at an average of 32 and a strike rate of 163.