Guyana Amazon Warriors are the new Caribbean Premier League (CPL) champions. On September 24 (Sunday), Guyana outmuscled a star-studded Trinbago Knight Riders without breaking a sweat in front of their fans at the Providence Stadium in Guyana. Imran Tahir's brigade thumped Kieron Pollard's team by nine wickets and lifted their maiden CPL title. Dwaine Pretorius starred with the ball for Guyana before Saim Ayub scored a thrilling half-century and finished the match in style.
Chasing a paltry target of 95 runs, Guyana lost the wicket of Keemo Paul (11 runs off 11 balls) for just 15 runs on the board. From there on, Ayub forged a match-winning alliance with the experienced Shai Hope that ultimately took Guyana to the promised land. The left-hand right-hand combination played sensible cricket with Ayub being the aggressor and Hope playing the role of an anchor to perfection. The duo stitched an unbeaten partnership of 84 runs that rolled out Guyana's road to the silverware.
Ayub, who smashed five elegant sixes and two fours, remained unbeaten on 52 runs off 41 balls while Hope scored 32 runs off 32 balls with the help of two boundaries. As a result of the duo's terrific display with the bat, Guyana chased down the target with six overs to spare.
For the Knight Riders, Akeal Hosein was the only bowler amongst the wickets as he finished with figures of 4/21 in four overs.
Earlier, Tahir won the toss and put the Knight Riders into bat. The decision paid instant dividends to Guyana as Pretorius and Romario Shepherd ran through the Knight Riders' top order. Nicholas Pooran (1), Pollard (0), Andre Russell (3) and Dwayne Bravo (8) combined for just 12 runs, which ultimately put the Knight Riders in deep trouble.
Keacy Carty tried to help his team put a decent score on the board but his knock of 38 runs from 45 balls didn't make any significant difference. With Guyana bowlers executing their game plan imperiously, the Knight Riders were bundled out for a score of 94 in 18.1 overs.
Pretorius was the pick of all bowlers for Guyana as the South African bagged four wickets and conceded just 26 runs in his spell of four overs. Gudakesh Motie and Tahir bagged two wickets each while Ronsford Beaton and Shepherd chipped in with a wicket each.
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