Guyana Amazon Warriors solidified their footing at fourth spot with a win in a death-overs thriller against table-toppers Trinbago Knight Riders. The Knight Riders, who have already qualified for the playoffs, were once again powered by Kieron Pollard, and his manic half-century, but the Warriors combined to snare their total of 167 for 5 in the very last over. Shai Hope was steady once more with a half-century and Shimron Hetmyer too hit big before Dwaine Pretorius’ six-hitting came to the Warriors’ rescue right at the end.
The Warriors were down to needing 38 off the last three overs when Andre Russell was brought back into the attack. The batting side were on slightly shaky ground at five down but Pretorius swung the game around in his team’s favour. Romario Sheperd hit a six and got out but the South African ate into the deficit significantly by capping off the over with two successive sixes off two full tosses. The 19-run over dwarfed the equation down to 19 off 12 balls.
Nathan Edwards then conceded a boundary and picked a wicket in the penultimate over to leave Pollard to defend nine off the last six balls. The West Indian veteran couldn’t quite add to his heroics with the bat as Pretorius saw through the change of pace on one ball and tonked it over deep mid-wicket for a six. On the second last delivery, Gudakesh Motie completed the chase.
Before it got here, the stage for the chase was set by Hope and Hetmyer. They were called into action early after another new opening pair – of Moeen Ali and Keemo Paul – did not work out. They both exited by the third over, leaving Hope and Hetmyer to undertake some repair work. They did with a third-wicket partnership worth 83 runs, putting their side well ahead of the asking rate. Sunil Narine, who finished with astonishing figures of 2 for 12 in 4 overs, broke this partnership to try and pull his side back into the game. It worked because the Warriors slipped a little from this point. Pretorius then flipped the chase around with his unbeaten 26 off 14.
The Knight Riders had batting concerns of their own. Pretorius made an impact in the first half of the game too, by breaking through first with the wicket of Colin Munro in the third over. The batting side lost Alex Hales in the fourth and suffered a bigger dent when Moeen Ali cleaned up Nicholas Pooran with a ripper from around the stumps in the sixth over.
The middle-order stood up to push back as Kaecy Carty and Darren Bravo added 56 runs for the fourth wicket. Pollard walked in only in the 16th over but made his presence fully felt with five sixes and five fours on his way to an 18-ball 54*. He helped the Knight Riders amass 67 in the last four overs but it proved insufficient on the night.
Brief Scores: Trinbago Knight Riders 167/5 in 20 overs (Kieron Pollard 54*, Darren Bravo 33; Dwaine Pretorius 1-26) lost to Guyana Amazon Warriors 168/7 in 19.5 overs (Shai Hope 53, Shimron Hetmyer 49, Dwaine Pretorius 26*; Sunil Narine 2-12) by 3 wickets
