- Ticketing office opens until 21:00h today
A blistering knock by Shimron Hetmyer and Sherfane Rutherford against the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) on Sunday evening at the Guyana National Stadium has placed the Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAW) in second place on the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) points table.
The two Guyanese cricketers launched a brutal assault on the Trinbago Knight Riders as their team chase down 155 for victory in their allotted 20 overs.
Now that they are at second place on the table, the competition has climaxed into the play-off stage which commences on Tuesday at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, East Bank Demerara.
The first play-off match will see the home side taking on the Trinbago Knight Riders on Tuesday at 18:00h. In the second match, the St. Kitts Patriots will square off with the Jamaica Tallawahs on Wednesday at the same time.
Both matches are expected to be action packed with Guyana fans turning up in their numbers as usual to support the home side.
Those who have not purchased tickets as yet, the Ticketing Office at Camp and Quamina Streets, Georgetown will open at 8:00h and close at 21:00h today. In addition, tickets for the matches will also be sold online at www.cplt20.com
However, it was a well anticipated match on Sunday between the Warriors and Knight Riders. The fans flocked the Guyana National Stadium with the expectation of an explosive win against the Trinidad side.
The home team managed to restrict the Knight Riders powerful batting line-up to just 154/7, and that left Guyana with two different targets.
As well as the usual 20-over target for the win, there was a second equation in play: victory inside 15.3 overs would be enough to leapfrog Jamaica Tallawahs on net run-rate and take second spot.
That, of course, brought with it a place in Playoff 1 and a direct route to the Final with a second chance in the Semi-final should they lose.
At 67/2 from nine overs on the back of Cameron Delport’s 37 from 27, the Warriors looked well placed for the win but behind the rate required to take second spot.
Then Hetmyer went berserk. Sixteen runs in three balls from Kevon Cooper in the 10th over propelled the score to 86/2 at halfway. When Jason Mohammed fell to Nikita Miller looking for another six, Sherfane Rutherford came in and showed how it was done.
He smashed his first two balls over mid-wicket for six, but even better was to come as the next ball was reverse-swept high into the stands for a third successive Hero Maximum.
By now it was abundantly clear the Warriors were going all out for second place. There was to be no let-up. Hetmyer continued the onslaught in the next over, passing 50 in just 24 balls as he took Anderson Phillip for another pair of huge sixes.
Then it was back to Rutherford, with the second of three sixes he smashed off Dwayne Bravo in over 13 bringing up the 50 partnership in a mere 15 balls.
Although Hetmyer could not have seen his team over the line, bowled by the impressive leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed, Chadwick Walton promptly smashed his first ball for six to bring the scores level and allow Rutherford the luxury of needing just a single to finish things rather than adding to his six sixes. He still hit four to end on a whirlwind 45 not out from 13 balls.
While it will understandably be Hetmyer and Rutherford who take the bulk of the plaudits, there was plenty of good work done with the ball in the first half of the night just to make it all possible.
