GEORGE­TOWN, Guyana – Saim Ayub struck an im­pres­sive third straight half-cen­tu­ry as Guyana Ama­zon War­riors brushed aside Ja­maica Tallawahs by sev­en wick­ets in their first home game on Wednes­day night, to ex­tend their un­beat­en run in the Caribbean Pre­mier League.

In pur­suit of 153 at the Guyana Na­tion­al Sta­di­um, Ama­zon War­riors over­hauled their tar­get with nine balls to spare, to notch their sixth win in sev­en match­es and re­turn to the top of the stand­ings along­side Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers on 13 points.

Their win was in­spired by Saim, the 21-year-old Pak­istani top-scor­ing with 85 from 53 de­liv­er­ies, a knock which put him with­in reach of 300 runs for the cam­paign at 288.

Twen­ty-year-old Matthew Nan­du, in his first game of the sea­son, chipped in with 37, in a 112-run open­ing stand with Saim, which erased any doubt over the re­sult.

Sent in ear­li­er, Tallawahs pro­duced an­oth­er un­der­whelm­ing bat­ting ef­fort and were re­strict­ed to 152 for five from their 20 overs, de­spite cap­tain Bran­don King’s 52 off 32 de­liv­er­ies.

Fabi­an Allen (21 not out) and Ray­mon Reifer (20 not out) carved out small knocks to­wards the end but the to­tal fell short of a com­pet­i­tive one, as fast bowler Dwaine Pre­to­rius led with two for 33 for the hosts.

Eng­lish open­er Alex Hales failed for the third straight in­nings when he played on to fast bowler Ro­mario Shep­herd for nine in the fourth over with 23 runs on the board.

How­ev­er, King lashed his third half-cen­tu­ry of the cam­paign to lead a re­vival, strik­ing ten fours and a six in post­ing ex­act­ly 50 for the sec­ond wick­et with Kirk McKen­zie (13), be­fore both fell in suc­ces­sive overs.

The in­nings then me­an­dered be­fore Reifer and Allen put on 41 in an un­bro­ken sixth wick­et part­ner­ship, to ral­ly the back end.

Saim then put Tallawahs on the back foot from ear­ly, belt­ing five fours and five six­es to race to his fifty off 34 balls at the start of the 11th over, as he and Nan­du dom­i­nat­ed.

The left-hand­ed Nan­du, who faced 35 de­liv­er­ies and struck four fours, per­ished in the 13th over when he was bowled by off-spin­ner Chris Green but Saim com­bined with Shai Hope (16 not out) in a 29-run, sec­ond wick­et part­ner­ship to keep the run chase steady.

Brief Scores

TALLAWAHS 152 for five off 20 overs (Bran­don King 52, Fabi­an Allen 21 not out; Dwaine Pre­to­rius 2-33)

AMA­ZON WAR­RIORS 155 for three off 18.3 overs (Saim Ayub 85, Matthew Nan­du 37)

(CMC)