Guyana Amazon Warriors maintained their perfect start to the Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with a comfortable seven-wicket win against the Saint Lucia Kings at the Darren Sammy Cricket Ground.
Shimron Hetmyer and Quentin Sampson finished the game in style as the pair blasted 35 runs off 10 deliveries to secure victory. Before that, Glenn Phillips and Mavendra Dindyal had set the chase up nicely with a 79-run opening stand. Both sides were left frustrated by the weather, with the rain causing four stoppages to play, three of which came in the Kings’ innings.
The Kings, put into bat by Imran Tahir, made a decent start, with Andries Gous in his last game of the tournament and Kamil Pooran returning from injury, trying to get the home side on the front foot in a rain-affected PowerPlay. Their efforts would see the Kings get over the 50 mark inside the first six overs before Tahir turned to himself and Mohammad Nabi to take pace off in the second quarter of the innings.
From there, the Warriors’ bowlers put the squeeze on the Kings, whose batters largely struggled to get out of the teens. Charith Asalanka was the exception, managing to stick around and work the ball around for an important 35.
The elements continued to frustrate the home side and their supporters in the ground as the delays seemed to kill any momentum they were able to muster and gave the edge to the visitors. Matthew Forde again looked dangerous at the back end of the innings, but was undone by Shamar Joseph, hitting into the strong cross wind and into the safe hands of Glenn Phillips. A lack of big overs handcuffed the Kings, with 13 being the most they took off any one over.
Guyana’s fielding and bowling was mightily impressive with all seven wickets falling to good catching. Dwaine Pretorious was the pick of the bunch, finishing with 3 for 29. Shamar Joseph wrapped up the innings beautifully, allowing just 7 runs off the last over and taking figures of 2 for 25 into the dugout.
With a modest total to chase, Phillips and Dindyal knew they didn’t have to hit fifth and sixth gear straight away as the pair took their time to build their innings and work out the conditions. The Kings bowlers struggled to create any potency as the openers gave them few chances to put some dents in the Warriors order. The first wicket took ten and a half overs to come as Phillips was caught by Matthew Forde having been dropped by Amari Goodridge a ball previously.
By contrast the Kings didn’t claim their chances in the field and that was a glaring difference between the two sides. Roston Chase and Joshua Bishop managed to give the Kings a little bit of hope going into the final five overs. But that hope was soon extinguished as Hetmyer and Sampson went about their assault.
