Warriors cruise past Patriots with fourth win

Guyana Amazon Warriors seized home advantage with a packed spin bowling line-up to restrict St Kitts & Nevis Patriots to 108 for 8, before chasing it down comfortably for a four-wicket win. Patriots had trouble coping with the turn on a slow pitch and made the chase look more difficult with a late flurry of wickets, but Amazon Warriors cruised home with 22 balls to spare.

The pitch came under heavy criticism from the television broadcast commentators at the Providence Stadium, with a low and slow track producing likewise action from the Patriots line-up. The visitors opted to bat but three specialist spinners in the Amazon Warriors attack - Steven Jacobs, Adam Zampa and Veerasammy Permaul - exploited the favorable conditions superbly, none more so than offspinner Jacobs, who took the new ball and finished with 1 for 7 in four overs.

Arriving in Guyana after a pair of blistering half-centuries in far friendlier batting conditions at Warner Park in St Kitts, Evin Lewis laboured through an 18-ball innings before a desperate shuffle across his stumps to flick Jacobs resulted in Lewis being trapped in front for 4 in the fourth over.

Lewis' opening partner Lendl Simmons exemplified the Patriots' overall struggle with the conditions, lasting until the final over to score 50 off 60 balls before he was run-out by Martin Guptill. In between, Zampa wiped out the middle order, including the key scalp of captain Faf du Plessis for just 1.

Guptill was the only batsman to look unencumbered by the nature of the track, scoring at nearly two runs a ball as he struck three fours and four sixes on his way to 43 off 22 balls and the Man-of-the-Match honours. Following the second-over departure of Dwayne Smith, Guptill and Chris Lynn produced a 60-run second-wicket stand across six overs before Guptill perished to left-arm wristspinner Tabraiz Shamsi after an attempted drive went awry.

Amazon Warriors reached the halfway stage needing just 24 runs to win with eight wickets in hand before a brief stumble was sparked by a leg-side stumping to remove Jason Mohammed off the bowling of Samuel Badree. It was the first of three wickets in the space of nine deliveries for just three runs as Badree had Christopher Barnwell lbw for a second-ball duck before Shamsi struck again to claim Anthony Bramble for 1.

Lynn held firm though and remained until Amazon Warriors were within one shot of clinching the match when he was bowled for 34 by JJ Smuts, before Jacobs and Sohail Tanvir calmly knocked off the final six runs. While Amazon Warriors cemented their hold on top of the table, Patriots' woeful start continued, having now lost four of their first five games.

Patriots left-arm seamer Krishmar Santokie was fined 75% of his match fees after the game for breaching Level 2 of the CPL Code of Conduct. At the end of the 16th over, he threw a ball back at batsman Steven Jacobs, thereby in violation of Article 2.2.7 which relates to "Throwing a ball (or any other item of cricket equipment such as a water bottle) at or near a player, player support personnel, umpire, match referee or any other third person in an inappropriate and/or dangerous manner during a CPL Match." Santokie accepted the proposed sanction.