Guyana cruise past St Kitts and Nevis Patriots by seven wickets

Guyana Amazon Warriors 150-3 (Ramdin 54 no) beat
St Kitts and Nevis Patriots 149-9 (Guptill 34) by seven wickets
11th match, Caribbean Premier League, St Kitts

Guyana Amazon Warriors simply cruised past St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, chasing down 150 in just 16 overs in the 11th match of the Caribbean Premier League at Warner Park.

St Kitts won the toss and opted to bat first, a decision that seemed to be bearing fruit when Martin Guptill (34) and Evin Lewis (34) put on a 50-run opening partnership in a little more than seven overs.

Guptill started it all with a boundary off the final ball of the first over, sweeping Veerasammy Permaul (0-35) for a boundary and topped it up with another off Marchant de Lange (1-24) in the next over.

Both the openers kept scoring boundaries at regular intervals, but de Lange pulled it back in the fourth over by conceding just two runs, while Sunil Narine (2-27) followed it with a maiden.

Introduced in the sixth over, Ronsford Beaton (3-39), went for 11 runs in his opening over, but made amends in the 10th over by dismissing Lewis, who lofted one to Brad Hodge at third man. 

Narine continued to trouble the batsmen as the pitch offered a considerable amount of turn going on to take the wickets of Guptill and Orlando Peters (0) in successive balls, putting Guyana in the driver’s seat. 

St Kitts never really recovered from Devendra Bishoo’s (2-13) double strike in the 14th over, which saw Shahid Afridi (3) and Marlon Samuels (17) losing their wickets trying to up the ante, leaving St Kitts at 93 for five.

Riding on the opening partnership and the lower order blitz from Brathwaite, St Kitts managed to post 149 runs, with only four batsmen going past double figures.

Beaton was the pick of the bowlers with his three wickets, while the spinners Bishoo and Narine managed two wickets each, with Tillakaratne Dilshan (1-9) and de Lange picking up one apiece.

Guyana did not enjoy a great start to their innings as they lost their star opener, Dilshan (12), to Sohail Tanvir (1-17) in the fourth over, as he top-edged a delivery to fine leg. 

After Dilshan fell, Lendl Simmons (41) scored five boundaries by the end of the power-play, with Guyana well placed at 47 for one, bringing their chase on track.

Denesh Ramdin (54 not out) took Afridi (0-51) apart for two boundaries in his very first over and Simmons followed it up with a six in the ninth over, as the St Kitts attack continued to leak runs.

Tabraiz Shamsi (1-25) induced an unnecessary shot from Simmons, who was trying to go down the ground but found the safe hands of Sheldon Cottrell (1-21), with Guyana reaching 84 for two by the half way mark.

All hell broke loose in the 13th over as Ramdin took Afridi apart for four consecutive sixes off the first four balls, making good use of the short boundary at mid-wicket.

He then followed it up with a boundary off the final ball, knocking off 28 runs from the target in just six balls, after a pretty ordinary display from Afridi who went for 51 runs in his four overs.

The Patriots never really recovered from that over, as the Warriors continued along their merry way, making short work of the target in just 16 overs, claiming their first win in the tournament. 

Ramdin was selected as the man of the match for his quickfire unbeaten half-century. 

CPL 2015 Points Table

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