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All-rounder Mark Deyal knows what it takes to help guide a team to the Caribbean Premier League T20 final.
Having spent the past three seasons at St Lucia Kings, his performances were integral in getting them to the title match in 2020 and 2021.
Sadly, the St Lucia franchise came out on the losing end on both occasions, but Deyal’s efforts and work ethic always stood out.
This year, the top-order batsman returned to his home franchise Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) and, as part of the same deal, former TKR spinner Khary Pierre transferred to the Kings.
[caption id="attachment_1034447" align="alignnone" width="683"] TKR opening batsman Mark Deyal -[/caption]
Deyal was part of the 2015 TT franchise, formerly known as Red Steel, but played only one match and scored 23 runs. That year, the local franchise won their first of four historic CPLT20 titles.
He featured for TKR in 2019 but had a rough season, scoring just 32 runs from three matches.
The following three years were spent at Kings and Deyal flourished with both bat and ball, establishing him as one of the squad’s and tournament's game-changing, match-winning players.
Despite settling for second place on both occasions, Deyal’s new dressing room is overflowing with CPLT20 winners, with the likes of Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine and Ali Khan among the lot.
He’s in title-lifting company and hopefully can go all the way this time around.
TKR boast a wealth of bowling talent and Deyal has only been able to get in one over, for seven runs, so far. He’s been solid with the willow but has not yet showed his full potential.
Deyal has played in six of TKR’s seven matches and scored two not out, 33, 27, 30, one and six respectively, a bit short of his batting heroics for his previous franchise.
His highest CPLT20 score came in 2021, against TKR, where he smashed 78, and was the driving force for Kings moving into the final. His top score in 2020 was 40, again, against TKR.
Altogether, he has 545 runs over six seasons, inclusive of the ongoing tournament. With the ball, he bowled at four previous editions and has eight wickets from 19 matches.
[caption id="attachment_1034446" align="alignnone" width="1024"] -[/caption]
Over this weekend, Deyal potentially has two more chances to shine on home soil as TKR face defending champions Jamaica Tallawahs on Saturday and his former franchise Kings, on Sunday. Both matches bowl off at Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, from 8pm.
Deyal hasn’t depended solely on the CPLT20 to show his talent, having also featured in tournaments such as the T10 in Dubai, the BPL in Bangladesh, the ILT20 in Dubai and the Global T20 in Canada.
 
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