The Guyana Amazon Warriors secured their place in the 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) play-offs after defeating the Trinbago Knight Riders and Barbados Royals over the weekend.
In this crucial encounter on Saturday night, Trinbago Knight Riders won the toss and chose to field. Amazon Warriors opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz gave the fans at Providence Stadium a spectacle, scoring 60 from 42 balls to ignite the Warriors innings and help take them to 173/6.
Seifert and Munro kept up with the run rate, giving the Trinbago Knight Riders a fantastic start in their pursuit. However, the Warriors, led by Shakib, stormed back to take wickets, including some outstanding fielding to eliminate Nicholas Pooran.
Once captain Kieron Pollard was out stumped, the Knight Riders faced an uphill battle and finished on 136 all out, leaving the Trinbago Knight Riders to be eliminated from play-off contention.
Meanwhile on Sunday, the Guyana Amazon Warriors completed the perfect set of home victories in the Hero CPL with a comprehensive defeat of the table topping Barbados Royals.
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 PowerPlay to devastate the Royals. On a surface that gave decent value for money, wickets continued to fall at regular intervals, and the 125 the Royals managed was never going to be enough.
When the Royals had their turn to bowl, the team was able to take two early wickets of their own, restricting the Amazon Warriors to 18/2 but that was as good as it got.
Although the Amazon Warriors lost Chandrapaul Hemraj and Shai Hope in the PowerPlay, Shakib played an enterprising innings to take the drama out of the chase. His knock of 53 came off 30 balls and laid the foundation for the Amazon Warriors to win with five over to spare.
The victory means the Guyana Amazon Warriors and Barbados Royals will go head to head again on Tuesday 27 September at 10:00 hrs in the first qualifier, followed by the second qualifier round, Saint Lucia Kings vs Jamaica Tallawahs at 19:00 hrs at the Providence National Stadium.
The qualifier rounds will determine who will earn the right to go straight to the Hero CPL .
