Basseterre, June 30, 2016: A superb bowling performance from Sohail Tanvir and Adam Zampa helped the Guyana Amazon Warriors to victory in their opening fixture of the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) against the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in a thrilling finish.
Tanvir and Zampa picked up seven wickets between them as the Patriots were restricted to 164-9 on a very good Warner Park pitch, but it proved to be a target that was chased down by Guyana with four wickets in hand and just one ball to spare.
There was some surprise when the Amazon Warriors chose Sohail Tanvir as their very first pick in the draft, but he showed in his first over why coach Roger Harper was so keen to secure his services.
He claimed the hugely important scalp of West Indies opener Lendl Simmons with his fifth ball in a wicket maiden.
Tanvir then returned to the attack at the death to pick up another three wickets as he finished with figures of 4-20/Guyana Amazon Warriors.
Having found themselves a wicket down with no runs on the board there was a consolidation of sorts by the Patriots when Evin Lewis and captain Faf du Plessis put on 34 runs in decent time.
The Patriots had gone from 34-1 to 35-3 in the space of two balls.
The dismissal of Carter brought the hugely experienced Brad Hodge to the crease.
Having coached at the IPL in recent months it has been a while since Hodge picked up a bat but it did not show.
He made a hugely important 38 from 32 balls that held the Patriots innings together when it looked in danger of collapsing. During the innings he become the second player after Chris Gayle to pass 7,000 runs in T20 cricket.
The Australian leg spinner finished with figures of 3-34 in his first Hero CPL match.
Shamsi was the pick of the Patriot bowlers, keeping the batsmen guessing with his variations, but no one else could keep the scoring rate under control for long enough for the Amazon Warriors to feel under real pressure.
Dwayne Smith raced to a well-made half century from just 32 balls, he was especially brutal on the bowling of Samuel Badree who is just returning from injury/Guyana Amazon Warriors.
Smith smacked three Hero Maximums off the usually economical Badree.
It was the medium pace of Krishmar Santokie that did for Smith who tried to drive him over the covers only to hit it straight to a fielder. It was Santokie’s 50th Hero CPL wicket, the most by any bowler.
Match 3, Trinbago Knight Riders vs Barbados Tridents Preview
Friday’s fixture sees the reigning champions Trinbago Knight Riders take on the 2014 winners, the Barbados Tridents.
The Knight Riders lost their opening fixture and their Chief Mentor, Jacques Kallis expressed their disappointment at losing their first home match of the season, but feels they learnt valuable lessons about how to cope with the conditions in Port of Spain going forward.
“We were very disappointed, we have a proud record at home and probably felt we had a half decent total on the board and didn’t bowl as well as we would have liked, but having said that we weren’t fair off, there are just little things that we need to improve on,” Kallis said.
“We have learnt a lot about conditions throughout and realised it is going to be team that handle dew best in these conditions that come out on top.”
The opposition captain will be Kieron Pollard who spoke of how he was looking forward to playing in front of a big Friday night crowd.
While he may be the leader of the Tridents, Pollard is a local boy who will know the conditions well.
“Every time you step into the Queens Park Oval for Twenty20 cricket you get a big crowd.
The people of Trinidad, they are passionate about T20 cricket and about cricket in general. With the Knight Riders being the defending champions they will come out and support them. But let’s not forget, I am home as well…”
Upcoming Fixture: Friday, 1 July – Trinbago Knight Riders v Barbados Tridents, Queen Park Oval (9pm). —- CPL/Sportsfile
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