"Five days ago, Aaron Jones said to me he's gonna win me the CPL final. I swear to god."
This was St Lucia Kings coach Daren Sammy baring his emotions minutes after his boys ended the franchise's 11-year wait for a first CPL title.
Not many would've expected Jones to play the final in the first place. Before this title clash, he had batted in only two games with a highest score of 8 not out. He sat out of Kings' line-up in Qualifier 1, where Kings had leaned towards a left-hander - Johann Jeremiah - to counter legspinner Imran Tahir and left-arm fingerspinner Gudakesh Motie.
On Sunday, however, Sammy had so much belief in Jones that he fiddled with the winning combination and brought Jones back into the team at the expense of Jeremiah. The move seemed to backfire when Jones dawdled to 10 off 19 balls, and the asking rate shot past 13. Roston Chase, at the other end, was battling a viral infection. With the vastly experienced David Wiese - and Matthew Forde who also is a fairly capable ball-striker - in the dugout, Kings were pondering the possibility of having Jones retired out.
With Kings 73 for 4 in 15 overs in their chase of 139 on a challenging Providence surface, the team management sent out a message to Jones via Jeremiah - 'have a crack because at the end of this over, [we are] gonna send David Wiese in,' as Faf du Plessis revealed after the win - and that unshackled Jones. This Jones turned into that Jones who had made a big splash during the 2024 T20 World Cup.
He pumped Moeen over wide long-on for an imposing six, setting the tone for a 27-run 16th over. In the next over, he launched two more sixes and celebrated those with gusto. Those sixes even had Sammy off his seat - and on his feet - in the dugout. Jones and Chase got the job done in grand style and silenced a packed crowd at the Providence.
"We always knew that playing is the final is going to be a challenge for sure," Jones told the host broadcaster. "Guyana is a very good team. Everybody in the camp was confident after we bowled so well, and we came out on top.
"Basically I tried to get [myself] in. From the dugout, the coach and some senior players told me that I'm the one way to take the risk and Roston will bat through. And I did just that. Personally, I see myself as a match-winner. I know that the first CPL title for St Lucia Kings is very important and told the coach that I'm going to raise my hand for the country."
It is this belief that has defined Kings' season. While du Plessis and Johnson Charles did the bulk of the work with the bat through the season, Sammy had created a team culture where each and every player believed that he's a match-winner. On Sunday, it was Jones and Chase's turn to step up.
While Chase has been central to West Indies' recent success, he isn't quite a T20 superstar like Nicholas Pooran. Overseas franchises don't go out to break the bank for him at auctions or drafts. As for Jones, he only made his CPL debut this season and is still finding his feet at the international level. Khary Pierre, who had spent much of his time at Trinbago Knight Riders in the shadows of Sunil Narine and Akeal Hosein, is Kings' go-to spinner, especially in the powerplay.
In the 2021 CPL draft, when Kings had selected Alzarri Joseph as a 17th-round pick, he hadn't played a T20I for West Indies. Du Plessis is the only bona fide T20 superstar in this team, which is otherwise a group of utility players who tend to extract the best out of their skills. In other words, Kings are a team of Daren Sammys with the OG Sammy at the helm.
"I'm extremely proud of the team," du Plessis said at the post-match presentation. "If you look at the group of guys here, there's no superstars; it's the guys that do the ugly work and the gritty work. And as a team we've played really well. We've had different guys at different stages putting their hands up, so I think as a team effort, I'm really proud of the guys.
"From a St Lucia perspective, right from the beginning when it was Juju fever and the [Olympic] gold medal was an excitement in St Lucia. 'Is this going to be the year?' As I said earlier, I'm just really happy for the guys that have been here for a very long time [like Sammy] and to get the first CPL [trophy] is a great achievement."
Upstaging Amazon Warriors in Guyana is no mean feat. Since CPL 2023, Amazon Warriors have lost just five of their 12 games at home, with three of those coming at the hands of Kings. Sammy and co have now given their parent franchise (Punjab Kings) hope that they can also break their title duck in the IPL.
"We're yet to win the IPL but after tonight we have the hope that we're going to win it next year," Mohit Burman, one of the co-owners of the Kings franchise, said. "If you put a good team together and you empower them, then you're only gonna get success."
Over to Project Punjab now.