Live Score

GAW won by 3 wickets

8:23 AM IST and 10:53 PM Local Time | In a humdinger of an encounter, the home side Guyana Amazon Warriors have kept their nerve and have got a victory with just a ball to spare. Trinbago Knight Riders fought till the end but fell short.

Imran Tahir won the toss and sent the Knight Riders to bat first. TKR lost the wicket of Alex Hales and Colin Munro early. Nicholas Pooran was looking good in his 10-ball stay but Moeen Ali outfoxed him with a fantastic off spin delivery for 13. Then Keacy Carty and Darren Bravo were in the middle. Their intention was to take the game deep but they were too slow to put the runs on the board. Their partnership yielded 56 runs off 61 balls and that's where TKR lagged behind. When Bravo miscued one off Tahir to find Moeen Ali on his personal score of 33, TKR were on 95/4, going at just over run-a-ball.

It was Kieron Pollard who took the scoreboard forward. He escalated the run rate by hitting a few boundaries. TKR management decided to retire Keacy Carty before the start of the penultimate over who scored just 29 facing 34 balls. They promoted Andre Russell who remained unbeaten on run-a-ball 3 at the end. Pollard ran a carnage and got to his fifty in 17 balls and remained unbeaten on 54 off 18 hitting 5 fours and as many sixes.

For the Guyana Amazon Warriors, Dwaine Pretorius, Imran Tahir, Romario Shepherd, Moeen Ali took a wicket each. Moeen conceded just 11 runs from his 4 overs.

Coming to chase the 168-run target, the Amazon Warriors got two early jolts as they lost Moeen Ali and Keemo Paul- their two openers inside the first three overs. Ben McDermott got an injury while fielding and didn't bat. When the Warriors were 14/2, Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer took the onus. Their 83-run stand thwarted the momentum back to the team. Hetmyer was the aggressor with his big hits and Hope played the required second fiddle to them. 

Hetmyer was looking good and he scored 49 runs off 30 balls hitting 2 fours and 4 maximums but when he went to hit Narine over square leg, Keacy Carty took his catch to send him back. Hassan Khan was dismissed by Usman Tariq and Shai Hope led the chase then. Hope got to his fifty but Sunil Narine trapped him in front on 53.

When 38 was required off 3 overs, Andre Russell got hit for a maximum first ball but in the next ball he took the wicket of Romario Shepherd. But in the last two balls of that over, Pretorius hit him for two maximums to take the equation down to 19 off 2 overs. Nathan Edward bowled the 19th over and conceded 7 from the first two balls but took the wicket of Quentin Sampson and the equation for TKR was 9 from 6. Pollard came to bowl that over and in the third ball, Pretorius hit him for a maximum and then the Amazon Warriors batters took two singles to take their team home with a ball to spare.

For Trinbago Knight Riders, Akeal Hosein and Sunil Narine took a couple of wickets. Nathan Edward, Andre Russell and Usman Tariq took a wicket each.

Dwaine Pretorius (POTM): "I love playing for them (Guyana). The crowd came out in numbers, glad we can get one tonight. It makes the road a bit easier. Always good to beat a great side like TKR. They are a really strong side, happy with the performance. 

Tried to stay calm, I feel bad about taking the man of the match award. I think Hope's innings was unbelievable tonight. It is tough in these conditions. We know it gets easier in the backend. Unfortunately, he got out but I thought he played really well. Moeen bowled well as well, overall a great team performance.

Yeah, it is awesome. TKR are a great team, they have massive experience. Polly came out and played a great knock. We pushed them hard today, we will see where we meet them again. Yeah, he (Pollard) was making me wait, so I thought, let me make him wait as well."

Nicholas Pooran (Trinbago Knight Riders Captain): "Brilliant match. Brilliant game of cricket. Kudos must be given to the Guyana Amazon Warriors. They bowled well in the powerplay and losing the wickets in the powerplay became crucial for us. The way Keacy Carty and Darren took the game deep and Polly finished it, we were happy at the innings break. I feel we disappointed us in the powerplay. We took two wickets but bowled a few loose overs. Sunil then kept us in the game and also Tariq.

I mean in T20 cricket, conditions play a massive role. Toss also plays a massive role. Tonight I am happy that my boys have performed well and they fought. We are looking forward to the Barbados game. See we will not win every game and it is not that easy either. We are ready for the Barbados leg.

We hope he (Mohammad Amir) will be fine before the Barbados leg."

Imran Tahir (Guyana Amazon Warriors Captain): "Yeah, it was a really exciting game. I think we bowled really well. Last 4 overs weren't ideal for us but only Pollard could have done that. We have to appreciate that. We always knew, 160, if we had a good powerplay, lost two early wickets, a bit of panic but glad that Shai, who has been our main guy, the way him and Hetmyer played is an example for the youngsters. 

(On Ben McDermott) I think he's fine. A little strain because of the dive but I think he should be fine tomorrow. Yes, I said that before the game. The crowd making an effort to come out and support us, this is purely for them. We will try to play a brand of cricket which we have been playing for the last few years. 

(On Dwaine Pretorius) Look, he has been in good form with the bat and he has been bowling well in the last 2 games. I am pleased that he has got a habit of finishing the games, I hope he continues like that."

That marks the end of our coverage from the 23rd match of the CPL 2025 between Guyana Amazon Warriors and Trinbago Knight Riders. Guyana Amazon Warriors have started their home leg with a victory and TKR have lost back to back games with this defeat.

For now, this is Saptak Sanyal signing off on behalf of my co-commentator Ajay Pal Singh and the scorer/analyst Raju Khariya. Have a good day!