KARACHI: Sohail Tanvir’s electrifying opening spell of 4 for 2 ended up short-circuiting the Barbados Tridents batting order as Guyana Amazon Warriors completed a crucial season-sweep over their main competition for the final Caribbean Premier League (CPL) playoff berth with a crushing 99-run win at Kensington Oval, Barbados on Tuesday.
In reply to Warriors first innings total of 158 for 8, Tridents were 19 for 5 at the end of the Powerplay after Tanvir ripped out the heart of the Tridents lineup. The left-arm quick came back later to claim his fifth to cap the most economical five-wicket haul in T20 history, ending with figures of 5 for 3 on a sorry night for the Tridents in which they were bowled out for 59, the second-lowest total in CPL history. The result means that the Warriors now have a four-point lead over the Tridents for fourth place on the CPL points table, putting Tridents in danger of missing the playoffs for the second year in a row.
Warriors’ batting performance on the night summed up the saying that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In their first match since captain Martin Guptill went home due to a family emergency, Warriors rallied together with a gritty display that featured several punchy knocks but nothing above Jason Mohammed’s 42 off 35 balls. Warriors were 65 for 4 after eight overs when rain halted play for 40 minutes and grinded their way to 117 for 5 after 17 before Mohammed and Roshon Primus produced a pair of back-breaking overs that put Warriors into the ascendancy. Mohammed was on 28 off 30 balls to start the 18th but tucked into Ravi Rampaul for two fours and a six before falling on the fifth ball of the over. Primus followed Mohammed’s lead in the 19th, smacking Wahab Riaz for consecutive sixes as a fighting total suddenly turned into one that was well over par. Tanvir was virtually unplayable in the Powerplay, with the only two runs off his bowling coming off an edge to third man and a leg-side wide. Bowling over the stumps to the right-handers, he was getting significant movement in the air and off the pitch.
Brief scores: Guyana Amazon Warriors 158 for 8 (Jason Mohammed 42, Assad Fudadin 27, A Hosein 2-19) beat Barbados Tridents 59 (Sohail Tanvir 5-3, Rashid Khan 3-15) by 99 runs.