With a convincing victory against the league-leading Barbados Royals, the Guyana Amazon Warriors completed the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) perfect run of home victories.
Due to the win, the first qualifier between the two teams will take place on Tuesday. After winning the toss, the Amazon Warriors chose to field first, which turned out to be a wise choice. Their seamers caused havoc on a brand-new pitch, grabbing three wickets in the Power Play to devastate the Royals.
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On a surface that gave fair value for strong stroke play, wickets continued to fall at regular intervals, and the 125 the Royals managed was never going to be enough.
When it was the Royals’ turn to bowl, they were able to capture two early wickets of their own, reducing the Amazon Warriors to 18/2, but that was as good as it went. The Amazon Warriors were on the verge of victory thanks to Shakib Al-Hasan’s brilliant half-century, and the other batsmen saw chase home to win the game in 15 overs.
The Guyana Amazon Warriors used the movement that was available earlier to unleash their squad of seamers on the Royals. Only late cameos from Ramon Simmonds and Mujeeb Ur Rahman allowed the Royals to total 125 after Romario Shepherd, Keemo Paul, and Odean Smith all contributed with wickets to leave the Royals 97/9.
Shakib produced a shrewd inning to end the suspense of the chase despite the Amazon Warriors losing Chandrapaul Hemraj and Shai Hope in the PowerPlay. His 30-ball innings of 53 provided the Amazon Warriors with the necessary five overs to win.
To decide who will advance directly to the Hero CPL final, the two teams will now square off once more in the first qualifier on Tuesday.
