Led by a masterful innings from ‘batting director’ Shimron Hetmyer, Guyana Amazon Warriors coasted to their second win in as many matches on Saturday, beating St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots by eight wickets in the HERO Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
In front of a sold out crowd at the National Stadium, Providence, Warriors inserted Patriots after winning the toss and they made 153-8 from their allotted overs. Hetmyer then sealed the hosts’ victory via a massive six over long on to see them reach 159-2, with seven deliveries to spare.
The Warriors were off to a solid start from openers Brandon King and Chandrapaul Hemraj who shared in a 63-run partnership. Hemraj was the more aggressive in the union as he raced to 39 from 24 deliveries. The left-hander’s contribution allowed the team to score 55 runs in the power play which ended with an 18-run sixth over from Usama Mir.
However, the following over saw Hemraj softly swatting a delivery wide outside off-stump into the hands of a diving Fabian Allen at point. He struck five fours and two sixes in what would be his highest T20 score.
King was happy to just chip away at the bowlers and allow strike rotation as he managed a 22-ball 27 after being dropped off the previous delivery.
Hetmyer then shifted gear in his unbeaten knock of 70. The left-handed batsman capitalized on any short pitched delivery and ultimately smashed seven fours and three sixes in what would be his fourth T20 half century.
Hetmyer’s innings was especially painful for the Patriot’s captain, Carlos Brathwaite who had dropped him on 34. The dropped catch trickled into the boundary for a four while the next two deliveries were blasted through the mid-wicket resulting in two boundaries, one of which was a six.
The 22-year-old shared an unbroken 64-run partnership with skipper, Shoaib Malik who was a mere spectator of the Hetmyer show.
He ended on 23 not out from 20 balls, stroking three boundaries including a breath-taking cover drive that rocketed into the fence off of former Warrior, Mohammad Hafeez.
Earlier, Warriors could have made an early breakthrough of the Patriots innings with Keemo Paul bowling Kjorn Ottley only for the replay to show it was a front-foot no ball. Paul overstepped again and was punished with consecutive boundaries.
After a yes-no calling between Evin Lewis (09) and Kjorn Ottley, the latter was back in the shed for 15 via run out but that brought Thomas to the crease.
Nonetheless, Patriots were indebted to personal best from Devon Thomas who anchored the innings.
The 29-year-old batted with grit on his way to 62 from 49 balls. In addition to seven fours, he smashed consecutive sixes off of Shadab Khan (2-20) to bring up his second half century. Thomas would, however, pick out Khan at deep mid-wicket off of Green to end his innings.
Nevertheless, a cameo from Allen ensured Patriots took 68 runs from the last five overs and cross the 150-mark. Allen scored 33 from 19 balls decorated with two fours and two sixes.
An entertaining last over bowled by Ben Laughlin saw six short pitched deliveries that resulted in two wickets, two sixes and a four as he finished with 2-43.
