Top order collapse left Warriors vulnerable

Hero Caribbean Premier League 2018…

Following a string of defeats from the start of this season, the St Lucia Stars (SLS) once again found themselves in a great position to claim a victory after a good bowling performance which left the Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAW) dumfounded.
Playing at the Darren Sammy Stadium at Gros Islet in St Lucia where they broke the 14-match losing streak and amassed the tournament’s highest total, the home side won the toss and gave Warriors the opportunity to bat first.
Warriors rustled up 140 – 9 in their allotted overs, ironically, one run short of the previous match against SLS where they posted 141 – 4, and were successful by three runs in defense.
GAW had somewhat of an excellent start as they raced to 30 – 0 in two overs, compliments of an aggressive Luke Ronchi who smacked Mitchell McClenaghan for three consecutive boundaries off the final three balls of the opening over.
Odean Smith got the same treatment in the second over as Ronchi and Walton combined to take 17 off the medium pacer.
McClenaghan then struck back in the third when he removed Ronchi (24) who mistimed a delivery which was short outside off, and toed it to David Warner at long-on with the score on 33.
Rahkeem Cornwall was introduced in the next over and was immediately successful, bowling Walton for 12 as Warriors’ opening pair continues to struggle this season.

Guyana’s leading run scorer, Shimron Hetmyer, added just one run to his 4-match aggregate of 222. Hetmyer gave Warner his second catch of the night off a Kesrick Williams-delivery, another bowling change which reaped a reward. Warriors were now 41 – 3.
The skipper Shoaib Malik (9), like Hetmyer, found it tough to score on Friday evening, but got out a different route. A brilliant piece of glovework from Andre Fletcher behind the stumps gave the Afghan Qais Ahmad his first wicket.
With the score on 62 – 4 in the ninth over, Cameron Delport (25) and Sherfane Rutherford (15) tried to dig deep and stage a recovery. Both middle order batsmen found it hard to find the boundaries but picked up consistent singles and twos which proved not to bother the opposition.
Williams found his second wicket when Delport got a top edge which fine leg comfortably settled under while an Ahmad-Obed McCoy link up resulted in the run-out of Rutherford.
Sohail Tanvir’s 19 and Rayad Emrit’s 17 were two welcomed scores down the order to help Warriors to yet again, another modest total.
Scrambling for runs in the more than often eventful last over, Veersammy Permaul (5) was caught going for a big one while Emrit was caught short of his crease trying to find an extra run against the arm of Kieron Pollard.
Both Williams and McCoy finished with 2 – 23 while a wicket each went to Cornwall, McClenaghan and Ahmad.
Up to press time, SLS were 71 for two from 11 overs before heavy rain stop play.