Homeboy Shimron Hetmyer scored a rapid half-century to steer the Guyana Amazon Warriors to an eight-wicket win over the St Kitts Nevis Patriots as action in the Hero Caribbean Premier League continued at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Saturday night.
Hetmyer lashed seven fours and three sixes in compiling an unbeaten 70 in just 47 balls as the Warriors, chasing Patriots’ 153-8, got there with seven balls to spare. The tally was Hetmyer’s third half-century of his CPL career and pushed the Warriors to joint top of the six-team table alongside the Trinbago Knight Riders, both sides on four points each from two wins in as many matches.
But Hetmyer’s job was made a lot easier by the foundation laid by the opening pair of Chanderpaul Hemraj and Brandon King. The pair belted the ball to all parts of the ground in the power play overs as they put on 63 runs.
The partnership was finally broken in the seventh over when Hemraj guided Carlos Braithwaite backward point only to see a flying Fabian Pierre pluck the ball out of the air.
Hetmyer then joined King and quickly took over the proceedings, outscoring his more senior partner. King was finally out in the 12 over for 27 when he was smartly taken by Usama Mir at short third man, Mir having put him down two balls before in the same spot, to leave the Warriors at 95-2.
Skipper Shoaib Malik then joined Hetmyer and the two shared in an unbroken third-wicket partnership of 64 to steer their team home with Hetmyer playing some blistering shots to the delight of the home fans.
Earlier, the Patriots got off to a horrendous start when they lost two wickets before the power play was done.
Kjorn Ottley, having got a reprieve when he was bowled off a no-ball by Keemo Paul on just 10, didn’t add much to his score when he was run out in a mix-up with Evin Lewis the very next over with the addition of just five more runs to his total.
Khan then induced a poor shot from Lewis in three overs later as the visitors slipped to 31 for two. The hard-hitting Trinidadian left-hander survived an lbw call off the fourth ball of leg-spinner Shadab Khan’s second over, then holed out to Paul in the deep going for a big shot the very next ball.
Patriots struggled to score runs thereafter and it was only a well-crafted half-century from Devon Thomas which ensured they got a decent total. Thomas scored 62 off 49 balls including seven fours and two sixes before he was brilliantly caught on the boundary by a diving Khan.
Some late hitting heroics from Fabian Allen (33) and two boundaries from Alzarri Joseph in the final over helped them get over the 150 mark.
SUMMARISED SCORES:
ST KITTS NEVIS PATRIOTS 153-8 (Devon Thomas 62, Fabian Allen 33, Shadab Khan 2/20, Ben Laughlin 2/43) v GUYANA AMAZON WARRIORS 159-2 (Shimron Hetmyer 70 no, Chanderpaul Hemraj 39, Brandon King 27, Shoaib Malik 23 no)
Result: GUYANA AMAZON WARRIORS WON BY 8 WKTS