Twitter Reactions: The Warriors register a remarkable win against Patriots

After the opening game of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) ended up being a one-sided contest, the second game too ended up being somewhat of a similar sort. The Guyana Amazon Warriors kicked off this edition with a brilliant win at their home ground. Under the leadership of Shoaib Malik, the side responded beautifully and defied all the odds to win this game. They defeated St Kitts and Nevis Patriots by 6 wickets and with more than 3 overs to spare.

After restricting the visitors to a low score, the hosts comfortably chased the target down after an initial top-order collapse. Although Chris Gayle was brilliant in this game, his efforts were overshadowed by the local hero Shimron Hetmyer. He sustained all the pressure and scored unbeaten 79 off 45 balls to get his team over the line.

‘The Universe Boss’ gets going!

St Kitts and Nevis Patriots were put into bat first by the hosts. The entire first innings was a one-man show from the mighty Chris Gayle. He has struggled to get the runs in the recent past. However, it was pleasing to see the big man get back amongst the runs. The skipper, after scoring 33 off 34 balls in the first nine overs announced his arrival in the 10th over with two consecutive sixes. After having got to his 50 in 41 deliveries, he decided to shift gears.

But, every time he looked to hit the big shots, there was a wicket that fell at the other end increasing the pressure on him. Finally, he fell in the 19th over of the game to Imran Tahir after scoring 86 off 65 balls. The next highest individual score was just 15 which definitely affected the team. Keemo Paul picked two wickets in the innings.

The Local Hero – Star of the Night

The Patriots started off brilliantly with the ball. The Warriors were down to 9/2 just inside the 2nd over having lost both their openers. Soon, skipper Shoaib Malik also perished after scoring 14 runs as the side was under tremendous pressure. But, in this sort of a situation, the local hero, Shimron Hetmyer took the onus upon himself.

With slight support from the other end, Hetmyer scored 79* off just 45 balls on a track that was tough to bat on. His innings included 9 fours and 4 sixes and he remained unbeaten till the end. Although Sheldon Cottrell and Sandeep Lamichhane picked two wickets each, the hosts ran away with a 6-wicket win.

Twitterati was thrilled to watch the performances from Chris Gayle and Hetmyer in this game. They hailed the local hero and congratulated Gayle for the brilliant shows. Sandeep Lamichhane was also applauded for the incredible debut in CPL.

Here is how they reacted