T&T's De­nesh Ramdin and Sunil Nar­ine were in great form in the open­ing match of the Caribbean Pre­mier League T20 tour­na­ment, as they led the Guyana Ama­zon War­riors to a close two-wick­et vic­to­ry over the An­tigua Hawks­bills at St George's, Grena­da, yes­ter­day. First­ly, Nar­ine com­plet­ed a bril­liant spell of 4�1�3�0 to re­strict the Hawks­bills to 136 for eight and Ramdin then scored 51 and Nar­ine a cool 11 not out, as the War­riors got the win at 140 for eight, with half an over to go.Af­ter Nar­ine's hero­ics with the ball, the War­riors were left with the not too dif­fi­cult task of get­ting 137 runs in 20 overs. How­ev­er, the Hawks­bills made them work all the way.

They had a very good start as Lendl Sim­mons and Mar­tin Gup­till were both sent back with on­ly eight runs on the board. How­ev­er, Mo­ham­mad Hafeez and Ramdin bat­ted sen­si­bly in get­ting the in­nings back on track and af­ter their 59-run stand for the third wick­et, the game was back in the bal­ance.Hafeez per­ished for 35 off 31 balls with three fours and Jim­my Nee­sham fol­lowed soon af­ter for 11, but Ramdin was still there guid­ing the ship. How­ev­er, a rush of blood led to skip­per join­ing them in the dug out for 51 off 36 balls with six fours and a six.At Ramdin's fall, the Hawks­bills smelt blood and Aus­tralian Ben Laugh­lin made a dou­ble strike to leave the War­riors wob­bly at 112 for sev­en. At this point Nar­ine and Veerasam­my Per­maul took over with the lat­ter strik­ing 15 off ten balls to bring the game to with­in reach. Just be­fore the end, he fell and Nar­ine and Kr­ish­mar San­tok­ie were left to get four runs off the last over, which they got.

Ear­li­er, Hawks­bills failed to close off their in­nings well and was re­strict­ed to just 136 for eight off their 20 overs. At the start of over num­ber 15 the in­nings was nice­ly poised at 103 for two.An es­ti­mat­ed score of 150 was on the tins but Nar­ine pro­duced the most eco­nom­i­cal spell in CPL T20 crick­et to re­strict them. The mo­hawk-hair styled spin­ner con­ced­ed just three runs from his four overs and al­though he did not take a wick­et, he cre­at­ed the pres­sure for wick­ets to tum­ble at the oth­er end.He got the ball to grip on the turf and the bats­men were un­able to pick the knuck­le ball, which he pro­duced time af­ter time. Twen­ty one of the 24 balls he sent down were not scored off.Aus­tralian im­port Ben Dunk had got­ten the Hawks­bills off to a fly­ing start. He smashed 38 off 21 balls, in­clu­sive of five fours and two six­es. To­geth­er with Sha­coya Thomas, they put on 40 for first wick­et in 5.2 overs. The Queens­lan­der was re­moved at this score and Ja­maican Dan­za Hy­att came in and con­tin­ued in his mode.Thomas left for 20 off 32 balls but Hy­att con­tin­ued to gath­er runs at ease. He was un­lucky to get run out for 36 off 33 balls (three fours and a six) and when his skip­per Mar­lon Samuels looked up on the gi­ant screen and saw those three dread­ed red let­ters OUT, the in­nings was left in tat­ters.

New Zealan­der Nee­sham end­ed with 3/33.

SCORE­BOARD

Hawks­bills inns

B Dunk c Hafeez b Beat­on 38

S Thomas c Hafeez b Per­maul 20

D Hy­att run out 36

M Samuels run out 4

D Hussey c San­tok­ie b Nee­sham 10

D Thomas c San­tok­ie b Nee­sham 10

S Cot­trell run out Ramdin 5

C Brath­waite c Ramdin b Nee­sham 0

J Athanaze c San­tok­ie b Nee­sham 0

M Cum­mins not out 0

Ex­tras w7 7

To­tal for 8 wk­ts 20ovs 136

Fall of wk­ts: 40, 100, 103, 108, 115, 136, 136, 136.

Bowl­ing: K San­tok­ie 4-0-34-0, M Hafeez 2-0-21-0, S Nar­ine 4-1-3-0, R Beat­on 2-0-21-1 (4w), V Per­maul 4-0-24-1 (1w), J Nee­sham 4-0-33-3.

War­riors inns

L Sim­mons b Cot­trell 0

M Gup­till c Brath­waite b Cum­mins 4

M Hafeez c Thomas b Samuels 35

D Ramdin b Brath­waite 51

J Nee­sham c Brath­waite b Cot­trell 11

C Barn­well c Hy­att b Laugh­lin 5

N Stew­art c Hy­att b Laugh­lin 1

S Nar­ine not out 11

V Per­maul c Hy­att b Cot­trell 15

K San­tok­ie not out 0

Ex­tras lb1, w6 7

To­tal 8 wk­ts 19.3ovs 140

Fall of wk­ts: 0, 8, 67, 100, 110, 112, 112, 133.

Bowl­ing: S Cot­trell 4-0-24-3 (2w), M Cum­mins 4-0-24-1 (3w), C Brath­waite 2.3-0-24-1 (1w), B Laugh­lin 4-0-27-2, J Athanaze 2-0-20-0, M Samuels 3-0-20-1.

Re­sult: Guyana Ama­zon War­riors won by 2 wk­ts.

Man of the match: De­nesh Ramdin.