157/3 (18.1)
CR : 8.64
151/7 (20.0)
CR : 7.55
Guyana Amazon Warriors won by 7 wickets 🏆
Player of the Match
Dwaine Pretorius
3/29
The chase was never daunting and on a wicket that was slightly offering something to the bowler. It was all about one substantial partnership. Glenn Phillips and Mavendra Dindyal added 79 runs for the first wicket. Phillips found his touch early and was milking boundaries. On the other hand, Dindyal was stuck in quicksand it seemed. He failed to get out of first gear for a long time. It was the experience of Phillips at the other end that instilled confidence in the youngster. The partnership came to an end when Phillips found the fielder at long on and was dismissed for 36 off 26.
Guyana Amazon Warriors won the toss and elected to bowl first. It was a slow and annoying first innings both for the players and the viewers. It had as many as 3 rain breaks and the batters of the St Lucia Kings could never gather any sort of momentum. Each of the top 7 batters got into double digits, but none were able to convert into something substantial. Charith Asalanka (35) and Andries Gous (20) were in fact the only two batters who made it to the 20-run mark. Decent contributions from Matthew Forde (14 off 7) and Shadley van Schalkwyk (13 off 8*) at the backend somehow propelled the side to 151/7! The pick of the bowlers were Dwaine Pretorius (3-29) and Shamar Joseph (2-25).
8:53 AM IST, 11:23 PM Local Time: Guyana Amazon Warriors win by 7 Wickets! This has been a clinical chase from the Guyana Amazon Warriors. Their openers set it up for them with a fine opening stand, and then, in all honesty, 152 was below par on this track. Only a cluster of wickets would have instilled panic in the Warriors dressing room. St Lucia Kings were never able to inflict that.
Player of the Match: Dwaine Pretorius
Dwaine Pretorius (Player of the Match): "(What does it mean to you to play for this team once again?) I love playing for Guyana. I think this was a really good team performance like the Jamaica game. Great opening partnership from our youngster, only playing his second game, and obviously with Glenn with a lot of experience. It was a great performance from the boys.
(Talk us through your preparation and planning) Look the powerplay is a coin toss on who it's gonna be. Look they played a few really good shots off me, so I went to my plan B and plan C options. Luckily those options turned out to be wickets. Just as they started going, as they created the momentum, we got the wickets. But I think Shamar bowled beautifully. KP (Khary Pierre), Nabi and Sheppie (Romario Shepherd) bowled really well. I think it was a great team performance. Hettie and Sampson coming in and finishing it off.
(Your partnership with Khary Pierre) We take pride on ourselves for not giving too many freebies. I think sometime we search too much for wickets, which tends to happen. If they hit you off a good length, hit you a good shot, you know on wickets like this, they might just go up in the air the second time around. But KP has been really consistent, it is really nice bowling with him. He does not give them a flyer, I try to do the same.
(On the outstanding support from the Guyanese) Yes the fans are awesome. Whenever we go, they support us. That sounds really cool playing for the Warriors. Where ever we go, we get a really good fanbase."
(Talk us through your preparation and planning) Look the powerplay is a coin toss on who it's gonna be. Look they played a few really good shots off me, so I went to my plan B and plan C options. Luckily those options turned out to be wickets. Just as they started going, as they created the momentum, we got the wickets. But I think Shamar bowled beautifully. KP (Khary Pierre), Nabi and Sheppie (Romario Shepherd) bowled really well. I think it was a great team performance. Hettie and Sampson coming in and finishing it off.
(Your partnership with Khary Pierre) We take pride on ourselves for not giving too many freebies. I think sometime we search too much for wickets, which tends to happen. If they hit you off a good length, hit you a good shot, you know on wickets like this, they might just go up in the air the second time around. But KP has been really consistent, it is really nice bowling with him. He does not give them a flyer, I try to do the same.
(On the outstanding support from the Guyanese) Yes the fans are awesome. Whenever we go, they support us. That sounds really cool playing for the Warriors. Where ever we go, we get a really good fanbase."
Roston Chase (St Lucia Kings Captain): "[Did batting first play a part in the result?] I don't think so. I think that whatever you do first, you have to do it well. I thought we were 25 runs short. We never got going with the bat and at no stage were we in control of the innings. We struggled to get to 150, and I don't think that was enough.
[On not being able to add big partnerships] It defines that we keep losing wickets in critical conditions when we start to build a partnership. When it is time to pull the trigger, that is when we lose the wicket. The next guy then has to rebuild and we lose the momentum. We then never seem to finish well in the last 5.
[On the missed chances] When you are defending a small total, it is necessary to get wickets in the powerplay. We didn't do that today. Maybe because the score was not too much. The batters did not have to come hard at us and thus we could not create chances. When we finally did create chances in the middle overs, we didn't hold on to them.
[Message to the team] Yeah, I think it is going to be the same thing. We keep making the same mistakes. So, it is just for the guys to focus hard and try to eliminate those mistakes. That is the only way we can go far from here.
[On Tim Seifert being available for the next game] Yes, hopefully he is."
[On not being able to add big partnerships] It defines that we keep losing wickets in critical conditions when we start to build a partnership. When it is time to pull the trigger, that is when we lose the wicket. The next guy then has to rebuild and we lose the momentum. We then never seem to finish well in the last 5.
[On the missed chances] When you are defending a small total, it is necessary to get wickets in the powerplay. We didn't do that today. Maybe because the score was not too much. The batters did not have to come hard at us and thus we could not create chances. When we finally did create chances in the middle overs, we didn't hold on to them.
[Message to the team] Yeah, I think it is going to be the same thing. We keep making the same mistakes. So, it is just for the guys to focus hard and try to eliminate those mistakes. That is the only way we can go far from here.
[On Tim Seifert being available for the next game] Yes, hopefully he is."
Imran Tahir (Guyana Amazon Warriors Captain): "(You got what you wanted and played beautifully) Yes our seamers started really well. We had experienced guys in the middle. They are doing really well and it helps us in the powerplay. Three of us can bowl in powerplay and it was a good performance from the boys as a bowling group.
(There is a buzz, there is a focus when you were warming-up) Look you know we are together since the GSL and we know different venues in Caribbean. I think it all comes with the experience and we showed a lot of professionalism. I think we got struck in the last four-five overs from the batting point of view, but guys in the down the order could hit the ball and we knew that if one of them hit, we could have chased it down easily.
(On the opening partnership) Ya look it was his (Mavendra Dindyal) second CPL game, so there was a lot of pressure. Forde was bowling to him, so there was a lot of pressure. I guess it was a good experience from him. He fought back. On the other side, it was Glenn Phillips' job as a senior player to give confidence and that's where the senior players come to the picture. He also did really well.
(Is this the strongest squad you have ever assembled in the CPL?) I think so but we have always had good players. I think how you come in different games in different venues is what you really want. You just want to play the game of cricket. As a group, we take pride on our group. We know we are representing Guyana, we are representing the badge, we do not want to take things so granted. We are doing really well. At the end of the day, you feel very happy as a captain."
(There is a buzz, there is a focus when you were warming-up) Look you know we are together since the GSL and we know different venues in Caribbean. I think it all comes with the experience and we showed a lot of professionalism. I think we got struck in the last four-five overs from the batting point of view, but guys in the down the order could hit the ball and we knew that if one of them hit, we could have chased it down easily.
(On the opening partnership) Ya look it was his (Mavendra Dindyal) second CPL game, so there was a lot of pressure. Forde was bowling to him, so there was a lot of pressure. I guess it was a good experience from him. He fought back. On the other side, it was Glenn Phillips' job as a senior player to give confidence and that's where the senior players come to the picture. He also did really well.
(Is this the strongest squad you have ever assembled in the CPL?) I think so but we have always had good players. I think how you come in different games in different venues is what you really want. You just want to play the game of cricket. As a group, we take pride on our group. We know we are representing Guyana, we are representing the badge, we do not want to take things so granted. We are doing really well. At the end of the day, you feel very happy as a captain."
St Lucia Kings once again fail to impress the home crowd and have received their 3rd loss in 5 games. The are slowly sliding down the table and need to be careful about that. Guyana Amazon Warriors have leaped to the top of the table as they stay unbeaten after their first two games. They have set the platform for yet another successful season.
The tournament moves to Antigua tomorrow for the first time this season. Antigua and Barbuda Falcons take on St Kitts and Nevis Patriots at 4:30 AM IST on 21st August (7 PM Local Time, 20th August). Do joins us for the live coverage.
On this note, I, Manan Mehta would like to take your leave on behalf of my colleagues AkshayaKrishna Polya, Saptak Sanyal and Dushyant Madhukar Kumar. Stay Happy. Stay Healthy. Stay Safe. Bye-bye!!!