Saim Ayub went from 50 to 100 in 21 balls, and then took the wicket that decided the chase

Keacy Carty edged the first ball of the match to the keeper, which brought Saim Ayub to the crease with one run on the board and 119 deliveries left in the innings. He was still there in the 19th over, on 102, and the Jamaica Kingsmen had 182 on the board that nobody else in their side had much to do with.

They made 182 for 7 at Warner Park in Basseterre on Thursday night, and the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots finished on 171 for 6. Eleven runs. In India the whole thing played out overnight.

Fifty off 36, and then the second one off 21

Saim’s hundred split cleanly in half. The first fifty took 36 balls and contained two fours and four sixes, which in a T20 is respectable rather than remarkable. The second took 21 balls. He finished on 102 from 58 with six fours and eight sixes, caught by Dasun Shanaka off Obed McCoy in the 19th over, by which point the game was more or less framed.

Nobody else got going. Keemo Paul finished 25 not out from 13 and Rovman Powell made 21, and after those two the next best score in the innings was 10. Of the 163 runs added while Saim was at the crease, he made 102. Wanindu Hasaranga was the one Patriots bowler who kept him quiet, four overs for 18 and two wickets while the other four went at between 8.75 and 11.25 an over.

His first hundred in 161 T20s

Saim is 24 and has played a lot of this cricket. Before Thursday he had 160 T20 matches behind him across the PSL, the BPL, the CPL and international cricket, and not one hundred in any of them. His best in 67 T20Is is 98 not out. His best in 53 PSL games is 88. He averages 25.24 in the format at a strike rate of 138.73, the profile of a batter who either takes a game away early or does not last.

Six days earlier, in the same competition at Gros Islet, he had made 1 and gone for 40 in his four overs. That is the shape of him. The CPL numbers now read 581 runs in 15 innings at 44.69 and a strike rate of 146, which is the best return of any league he has played in.

Then he removed the man chasing it down

Andre Fletcher was doing to the Kingsmen what Saim had done to the Patriots. He reached fifty off 32 balls and took St Kitts and Nevis to 112 in the 16th over with four wickets down, needing 71 from 29 with Jason Holder and Shanaka still to bat.

Saim ended it himself, taking a return catch to dismiss Fletcher for 55. His four overs cost 20 at five an over, the cheapest full spell in the Kingsmen attack, and the Patriots never got the tempo back. Holder made 34 from 23 and Shanaka 35 not out from 18 with four sixes, but Holder was bowled by Hunain Shah at 150 in the 19th, leaving 33 needed from eight balls. They got 21 of them.

The Kingsmen almost gave it away in wides

The margin looks comfortable enough until you get to the extras column. The Kingsmen bowled 13 wides and gave away 14 extras in all. The Patriots gave away five. Jediah Blades took two wickets and went for 50 in his four overs, five of them in wides.

Both innings reached 100 in exactly 13.4 overs. Both powerplays produced 42 runs. The two sides were separated by nine runs in extras and one batter, and the batter was the bigger number.

It is a third win for the Kingsmen, who sit fourth. The Patriots are still bottom of the seven.

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