Warriors whip Tallawahs by 7 wickets for 3rd straight win

By Akeem Greene

The Guyana Amazon Warriors began their home matches in the 2016. Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with a thumping seven wicket win over the Jamaica Tallawahs with 12 balls to spare. In the process, the Warriors won their third consecutive match to go to the top of the points table.

Set 101 to win match nine of the CPL at Providence, Warriors eased home with little fuss due to some high tempo knocks by Chris Lynn, Jason Mohammed and Anthony Bramble. The chase of the small target was set up nicely by the superb effort by the home team’s bowling unit led by Man-of-the match Veerasammy Permaul with 3-20.

The Warriors chase got going when Captain Martin Guptill played a sumptuous cut shot off the bowling of left-arm spinner Gary Mathurin that sped to the ropes and the home-side looked set to gun down the total with little trouble. However, the chase was jolted when the left-arm spin of Imad Wasim accounted for the wickets of Guptill and in-form Dwayne Smith. Guptill attempted to force the ball over the in-field and was taken a mid-off while lack of footwork by Smith saw his undoing.

The spinners came on from both ends and scoring became extremely difficult for the Warriors. The power play yielded just 13 runs. Lynn who smashed a whirlwind 43-ball 77 in the previous match against the Trinbago Knight Riders along with Jason Mohammed (22) stemmed the flow of wickets with a gusty partnership of 42 that keep the Warriors in check with the target.

Mohammed fell with 48 needed for 40 balls but Lynn who was quiet most of the innings began clearing the ropes, one of which was a distain pull shot off the bowling of speedster Dale Steyn that went sailing into the orange stand.

At 53/3 in the 14th over Anthony Bramble came out all guns firing and changed the whole complexion of the match but had two lives when he was dropped in some acrobatic attempts by Shakib Al Hasan on the boundary.

The Lynn-Bramble combination added 48 off 28 balls in a blistering fourth wicket stand that ensured there was no fairy tale ending for the Tallawahs, by sealing the win with two overs to spear.

Lynn struck three sixes and one four in his uneaten knock of 39 while Bramble’s 18-ball 27 was inclusive of two sixes and one four; Wasim with 2-6 was Tallwahs most successful bowler.

Earlier, Warriors won the toss and Sohail Tanvir was the man with the golden arm when got his second delivery of the match to nip-back striking the in-form and ever so dangerous Chris Gayle on the pads. The Tallawahs captain was sent on his way by umpire John Ward without scoring and his team 1/1 much to the delight of the vocal Amazon Warriors fans.

It became even more a perfect start for the Warriors when the experienced Kumar Sangakkara lifted the left-arm spin of Permaul out to deep mid-wicket after which Jason Mohammed obliged by taking the catch of the match; a full stretch dive to leave the visitors at 24/2. The joy did not end there for Permaul since he bowled Chadwick Walton with the next delivery and the Tallawahs were in deeper trouble at 24 for 3 inside the power play.

Shakib Al-Hasan (25) and Rovman Powell stage a recovery of some sorts when they added 51 for the fourth wicket with smart batting but Hasan gifted his wicket when he played a lofted shot straight to deep mid-wicket; Andre McCarthy (00) was stumped next ball and the slide continued for the Tallawahs.

The Warriors never seemed to allow to oppositions batsmen to expressed themselves, as they hit only two boundaries from the first 10 overs on a pitch which looked quicker than those of the past.

The rock of the innings, Powell eventually succumb to the pressure after making 38 (1×4;1×6) and the rest of the batting failed offer any resistance, as the rest of the batting capitulated, slipping from 75-4 in the 13th over to 100 all out in 18 overs.

Rayad Emrit, Tanvir and Adam Zampa all picked up two wickets a piece.

The Amazon Warriors now sit on six points from three wins and will now meet the St. Kitts and Nevis in a return fixture tomorrow from 12:00 Hrs. ([email protected])