Warriors register hat-trick of wins at home

Hero CPL 2019…

-Hemraj, Pooran and Shepherd dismantle Tridents

By Brandon Corlette

In what has been a dream finish to their first three home matches, the Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAW) registered a comfortable 47-run win over the Barbados Tridents on Sunday at the National Stadium at Providence, EBD.

Chandrapaul Hemraj, who has been declared ‘player of the match’, together with Nicholas Pooran, Romario Shepherd and Sherfane Rutherford, lit up the packed Stadium with scintillating performances on Sunday evening.

Hemraj hits hard
After Jason Holder had won the toss, he asked GAW to bat first. The home team, which had made one change in replacing Ben Laughlin with Odean Smith, lost Brandon King with the score on 8 in the third over of play — King top-edging one off Holder after scoring a single — as the Tridents bowlers kept things tight in the ‘power play’.

Shimron Hetmyer then partnered Chandrapaul Hemraj, and they added 35 runs to the score, with Hemraj dominating the stand. Holder’s second over was a wicket-maiden, but Hemraj spoiled Holder’s figures as he dumped him for two sixes in an over that yielded 13 runs.
After six overs, GAW were 31-1, Hetmyer taking nine balls to come off the mark; but his second scoring shot saw him rocking back to deposit Ashely Nurse into the mid-wicket fence for a maximum.

It took some brilliance to remove Hetmyer. Roshon Primus, hitting the off-stump line, encouraged Hetmyer to force one to backward point, where substitute fielder Hayden Walsh took a screamer. An incredulous Hetmyer departed for nine, and the score was adjusted to 43-2 in 7.3 overs.
Hemraj, though, continued to plunder the bowling, hitting the ball with finesse. However, he kept losing batting partners in the process. He lost his captain Shoaib Malik (04) at the end of 10 overs, when the score was 63-3.
Dropped by Nurse off a Primus delivery when on 37, Hemraj rode his luck and eventually surpassed his highest T20 score. With Marquee player Nicholas Pooran as his partner, Hemraj motored along nicely. Anchoring the innings, he reached his maiden T20 fifty with a cracking shot over long-on.
Getting in his groove for the first time in this CPL season, Pooran added 39 runs with Hemraj.
Hemraj’s innings of 63 runs from 55 deliveries, which included six fours and three sixes, came to an end when Raymon Reifer angled one away on off stumps and Nurse took a good running catch.

Pooran and Rutherford short-circuit Tridents
The GAW score was then at 102-4, but the Tridents were in for double trouble when Pooran and Rutherford came together. They lit up the night sky in scoring 78 runs from just 29 balls as they visited misery on the Tridents. Between them, nine sixes were registered as they deposited the ball to all parts of the ground.
Pooran reached his fifty in 28 balls, then he and Rutherford took 24 runs off the penultimate over; while Reifer’s last over — the final over of the innings — yielded 21 runs.
Pooran ended his innings unbeaten on 61 runs scored from 30 balls, which included five sixes and three fours; while Rutherford’s innings yielded 32 runs from 14 deliveries, inclusive of four sixes, as the Warriors posted a formidable 180-4 in 20 overs.

Hemraj, Khan and Malik produce gold
It took Hemraj only one ball to remove the exiled English opener Alex Hales for a golden duck on his CPL debut. With spin doing the trick for the Warriors, the ‘power play’ overs saw three Tridents wickets falling for 44 runs. After Hemraj bowled Hales with a straight ball, Shadab Khan struck twice in removing Johnson Charles for 19 and debutant Leniko Boucher for 16.
Captain Malik came to the party, and removed Jonathan Carter (02) with the first ball bowled after the ‘power play’, to push the score to 44-4. Some brilliance from Keemo Paul and Chris Green saw Captain Holder heading back to the pavilion after he was run-out for four.
Tridents slipped further into the dungeons when they lost JP Duminy for 20. He chopped on a Paul delivery and ended up with his furniture destroyed.

Nurse makes Warriors wait, Shepherd wraps up tail
At 75-6 Nurse and Primus joined forces, and the duo took the score to 119-7. Nurse was dominant in his approach, smashing three sixes and three boundaries in his top-score of 40 from 25 balls.
He was removed by impressive Berbician Romario Shepherd, compliments of Pooran’s stunning glove work. Finding himself on a hat-trick after bowling Reifer for a duck the next delivery, to take the score to 119-8 in 14.4 overs,
Shepherd drew final blood when he grabbed his fourth wicket to end with a career best 4-13, as Tridents were bundled out for 133 in 16.4 overs.
GAW will meet St Kitts and Nevis Patriots on Saturday September 14 in their first away match.