CPL 2017, Match 21, GAW vs STS, Review: Warriors brush aside St. Lucia to stay in contention for playoffs

Guyana Amazon Warriors defeated St. Lucia Stars in another low scoring encounter by 7 wickets and kept themselves in contention for the playoffs. For St. Lucia though, this was their seventh loss in eight matches and even the change of captains hasn’t worked.

On a sluggish surface of the Providence stadium in Guyana, the home side won the toss and chose to bowl first. They played the same team which won against Barbados whereas the Stars made two changes in a quest to turn around their fortunes. Eddie Leie and Jesse Ryder were included at the expense of Samuels and Kyle Mayers.

The visitors got off to the worst possible starts as their opener Andre Fletcher and the skipper Watson were dismissed in a space of 3 deliveries. Fletcher threw his wicket away and Watson was involved in a mixup with his partner. Ryder and Charles tried to resurrect the innings but it was tough going on a slow and turning pitch. The Stars’ innings never got the momentum they needed and lost wickets in the search of quick runs.

Warriors’ bowlers were deadly accurate and the batsmen broke the shackles only to lose their wickets. No batsman could provide semblance to the score as Stars finished with a poor total of 100/7 in 20 overs. They could only hit 5 fours and a couple of maximums. The bowlers enjoyed their time with Rashid Khan being the pick with figures of 2/19. Even others were economical among which Emrit and Permaul took 2 and 1 wickets respectively.

The Chase…

The experiment with Sohail Tanvir continued as he strode out to open along with Chadwick Walton. Stars were jubilant as Jerome Taylor sent the in form Walton packing off the very first ball of the innings. Even Guptill could not stay for long as he was stumped off Cornwall in the fourth over. Now Stars had started to believe but they had a very small total to defend.

Jason Mohammed, along with Sohail Tanvir did not take many risks and kept rotating the strike with the odd boundary coming their way easily. Both the batters added 51 runs for the third wicket and made sure there were no hiccups on the way. Tanvir was stumped off Shillingford in the 11th over but he had done his job by then scoring 38 off 29 balls with 5 fours and a six. Jason Mohammed kept his cool and won the game for his team without any fuss. He scored 42 off 35 deliveries with 3 fours and 2 sixes.

Stars bowlers tried their best but they had a meagre total to bowl at and could not do much. Taylor, Shillingford and Cornwall scalped a wicket each and were economical as well. Warriors now have 6 points from 8 games and can have a real shot at the playoffs. But for that, they will need to win both the games as they have already played a couple of games more than the fifth placed Barbados.

St. Lucia will play their remaining games only for pride now would like to have at least a win under their belt before signing off from the competition. Guyana has a significant break now and would come fresh to play against Barbados Tridents.

Brief scores:

St. Lucia Stars- 100/7 in 20 overs (J Ryder 29 (30b, 3×4); Rashid Khan (2/19), Rayad Emrit (2/26))

Guyana Amazon Warriors- 101/3 in 14.4 overs (J Mohammed 42* (35b, 3×4, 2×6), S Tanvir 38 (29b, 5×4, 1×6); Jerome Taylor (1/13), Shane Shillingford (1/20)

Guyana Amazon Warriors won by 7 wickets.

Sohail Tanvir was awarded Man of the Match.