Off the floor!

——-Amazon Warriors brush aside Patriots to claim first points

BASSETERRE, St Kitts, CMC – Guyana Amazon Warriors moved off the bottom of the standings while condemning St Kitts and Nevis Patriots to their third defeat, by strolling to an effortless seven-wicket victory in the Caribbean Premier League here last evening.

Amazon Warriors skipper Denesh Ramdin led his team to its first win of this year’s CPL tournament with an unbeaten knock of 54. (Photo courtesy of CPL website)
Amazon Warriors skipper Denesh Ramdin led his team to its first win of this year’s CPL tournament with an unbeaten knock of 54. (Photo courtesy of CPL website)

Chasing a tricky 150 for victory, they reached their target with four overs remaining at Warner Park, with captain Denesh Ramdin stroking an unbeaten 54 from 35 balls and opener Lendl Simmons, 41 from 33 deliveries.

Opting to bat earlier, Patriots gathered just 149 for nine off their 20 overs, with openers Martin Guptil and Evin Lewis both getting 34. However, the middle order slumped, and the hosts needed Carlos Brathwaite’s robust 23 from 11 deliveries to get up their eventual score.

Fast bowler Ronsford Beaton did the damage for Amazon Warriors with three for 39 while leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo (2-13) and off-spinner Sunil Narine (2-27) picked up two wickets apiece.

The victory would have eased Amazon Warriors’ worries, especially after losing their first two games of the series. With their first points, they now lie fourth while Patriots, with their third loss in four outings, are fifth.

Guptill and Lewis handed Patriots a slow start, posting 66 off 57 deliveries, to leave the hosts starved for runs at the half-way point.

The right-handed Guptill faced 31 balls and struck three fours and a six while the left-handed Lewis consumed 34 deliveries and had the same boundary count.

Lewis was first to fall, taken at third man off Beaton in the tenth over and Guptill followed in the 13th, bowled by Narine after missing a sweep.

Off the very next ball, Orlando Peters was trapped lbw without scoring as five wickets tumbled for 20 runs in the space of 18 balls, leaving the Patriots slumping at 103 for six in the 16th over.

Among the carnage was captain and talisman Marlon Samuels, who made 17 from 14 balls with two fours, before coming down to Narine, missing his swing, and being stumped by Man-of-the-Match Ramdin.

Brathwaite then accelerated the innings with his cameo, as he added 33 for the seventh wicket with Sohail Tanvir (9). The right-hander crunched three sixes but perished at long-on off Beaton, going for another maximum in the 18th over.

Patriots then struck early when they bowled, claiming dangerous opener Tillakaratne Dilshan for 12 with the score on 19, top-edging Tanvir to Tonito Willett at short fine leg.

However, that was the last success for a while for Patriots, as Ramdin anchored two successive half-century stands to see Amazon Warriors home.

He put on 65 for the second wicket with Simmons who blasted five fours and a six before holing out in the deep off left-arm spinner Tabraiz Shamsi in the tenth over.

Ramdin then added a further 59 for the third wicket with Brad Hodge who made 18 off 15 balls, with two sixes, before falling to a brilliant low catch at third man by Willett.

Ramdin hit five fours and four sixes – the latter coming off the first four balls of leg-spinner Shahid Afridi’s final over, the 13th of the innings, which cost 28.

He appropriately ended the contest by pulling Tanvir to the ropes at square leg, off the final ball of the 16th over.