BASSETERRE, St Kitts (CMC) — St Lucia Zouks produced an aggressive batting display to post the tournament’s highest score this season, as they gained revenge over Barbados Tridents with a 30-run victory in the Caribbean Premier League here Friday night.

Man-of-the-Match Andre Fletcher slammed 77 from 50 balls, while Englishman Kevin Pietersen carved out 73 off 39 deliveries – his first CPL half-century – to propel Zouks to an imposing 202 for five at Warner Park.

Captain Darren Sammy then snared three for 35 as Tridents never recovered from a slow start, and could only muster 172 for seven.

Jason Holder struck 31 not out, while Shoaib Malik and Kieron Pollard also scored 31 apiece.

The victory strengthened Zouks’s position in second on seven points, just one behind Tridents, who have now lost two of their last three games following an opening three-match winning streak in Barbados.

Zouks, who went down to Tridents on Sunday, came out firing on all cylinders this time around. Opting to bat first, they suffered the early loss of Johnson Charles who perished in the second over for seven, miscuing seamer Ravi Rampaul to Dilshan Munaweera at square leg.

However, they overcame this blip courtesy of a 138-run, second-wicket stand between Fletcher and Pietersen, who spectacularly put the Tridents bowlers to the sword.

Fletcher smashed three fours and five sixes while Pietersen entertained with seven fours and four sixes, as Zouks raced to their fifty off 34 balls and the century mark off another 30 deliveries.

It was Pietersen who pioneered the hostilities, taking four boundaries off the third over sent down by seamer Holder, which cost 17 runs.

He also ripped into seamer Rayad Emrit in the ninth over which went for 18 runs, smacking two fours and a six off the right-armer, and Fletcher got in on the act with two successive sixes off left-arm spinner Robin Peterson in the 12th over, which cost 20.

With Zouks in cruise control in the 14th over, Pietersen holed out in the deep off leg-spinner Jeevan Mendis, who was Tridents’s best bowler with three for 33. Two balls later, Mendis struck again, bowling Henry Davids for a first ball ‘duck’, as Tridents tried to claw their way back.

But Fletcher and Ross Taylor, who made 23 not out, posted 36 off 21 balls for the fourth wicket to keep the momentum going, before Fletcher misread a Mendis googly and was palpably lbw in the 18th.

Not for the first time, Tridents got a sluggish start from openers Munaweera, who hit 23 from 18 balls, and Dwayne Smith, who got 16 from 18 balls.

They put on 41 from 34 balls, but by the time Munaweera holed out to Sammy at deep mid-wicket off off-spinner Shane Shillingford in the sixth over, Tridents were only going at just over seven runs per over.

Smith followed in the next over, caught and bowled by Sammy, and Shoaib and Jonathan Carter (10) put on 34 for the third to revive the innings, but not at the haste required.

When Carter was caught at the wicket off off-spinner Nathan McCullum in the 10th, Tridents were stuttering at 81 for three and they were in even deeper trouble when both Shoaib and Mendis (0) fell in the space of four deliveries to Sammy, leaving the innings on the ropes at 98 for five in the 13th over.

Pollard and Holder tried to launch a rally with a 52-run, sixth-wicket stand off 34 deliveries, but by the 17th over, the required run rate had climbed to well over 20, and Tridents slid towards the inevitable.