A lively home crowd carried Guyana Amazon Warriors to their first victory of the 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) as they beat Saint Lucia Kings by six wickets. It was the second straight loss for St Lucia.
The Guyana Amazon Warriors won the toss and put their opposition in and the Kings got off to a blistering start, racing to 77-0 in the powerplay. Then the tide turned as spinners Imran Tahir and Tabraiz Shamsi. The Kings finished on 161 for seven with Johnson Charles batting through the innings and scoring a superb 87 off just 59 balls.
Saint Lucia Kings got off to a dream start, Charles combining with Faf du Plessis to reach 77-0 after six overs, the highest powerplay score of the season so far. Yet Shamsi and Tahir highlighted their quality by restricting runs and picking up wickets that held up scoring for the Kings. Tim David launched a late counter-attack, but it was Keemo Paul who shone with the ball in the final over, picking up two wickets and giving away just four runs, which saw the Kings end on 161/7 after 20 overs.
Despite losing early wickets, Guyana Amazon Warriors navigated their chase through Shimron Hetmyer and Heinrich Klaasen, who built a 66-run partnership together for the fourth wicket. Klaasen would go on to score a sublime 61 from 46 balls to take Amazon Warriors to their first win of the season with ten balls to spare. There was some concern when Chandrapaul Hemraj and Shai Hope left at the same score of 37 and then Colin Ingram left making if 46 for three in the seventh over. But Klaasen and Hetmeyer ensured there were no hiccups.
Brief scores: St Lucia 161/ 7 in 20 overs (Johnson Charles 87, Faf du Plessis 31, Tabraiz Shamsi 2/14, Keemo Paul 2/27) lost to Guyana Amazon Warriors 162/4 in 18.2 overs (Heinrich Klaasen 61 not out, Shimron Hetmeyer 32, Chandrapaul Hemraj 23, Keemo Paul 21 not out, Jeavor Royakl 2/17) by six wickets.
Man of the Match: Heinrich Klaasen
Third win for Jamaica Tallawahs
The Jamaica Tallawahs secured their third victory of the 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) season with a win over Trinbago Knight Riders by 34 runs.
The Trinbago Knight Riders won the toss and chose to field. Then their bowler Ravi Rampaul made early inroads by removing both Jamaica openers, Brandon King and Kennar Lewis. However, Tallawahs captain Rovman Powell led by example, hitting ten boundaries in his innings of 67 to take his side to 153/7 after 20 overs.
Powell combined with Raymon Reifer in a 90-run partnership stand to help their side. Sunil Narine bowled exceptionally well and was rewarded with the wickets of both Powell and Fabian Allen to restrict scoring in the final overs, with the Tallawahs setting a target of 154 to win.
Trinbago Knight Riders in turn lost the wickets of Sunil Narine and Tion Webster early on, and largely due to superb bowling spells from Mohammad Amir and Imad Wasim. They were unable to find any fluency as they consistently lost wickets, ending up on 119/8 and losing by 34 runs.
Trinbago Knight Riders once again utilised Narine at the top of the order but he was bowled in the first over by Amir. After Webster was run-out, Colin Munro and Tim Seifert attempted to rebuild but eventually both lost their wickets.
Amir struck again to remove Nicholas Pooran as the Knight Riders were unable to build any partnerships, with Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell also falling. In the end they scored 119/8, falling 34 runs short of their target.
Jamaica Tallawahs have now won three of their first four games, while Trinbago have lost two successive matches.
Brief scores: Jamaica Tallawahs 153/ 7 in 20 overs (Rovman Powell 67, Raymon Reiffer 28, Ravi Rampaul 3/40’, Sunil Narine 2/11) beat Trinbago Knight Riders 119/ 8 in 20 overs (Colin Munro 29, Mohammad Amir 2/15, Imad Wasim 2/20) by 34 runs.
Man of the Match: Imad Wasim.
