The top two sides in this year’s Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) duked it out in Providence with the reigning champions Guyana Amazon Warriors winning by a sizeable 35 run margin against nearest rivals at the top of the table – Saint Lucia Kings.
Warriors captain Imran Tahir won the toss and elected to bat on home turf in Guyana, the daytime match wicket was thought to be a tricky one to score freely on but the Warriors put on a confident display, breaching the 200 mark to finish on 207/7 from their 20 overs.
The Warriors top order all contributed with Shai Hope and Player of the Match Shimron Hetmyer making the most telling contributions, assessing conditions and picking which bowlers to go after and when, both men compiled assured half centuries whilst also not eating up too many deliveries. Faf du Plessis batted through the entire innings and a various stages looked to be suffering from cramp as the Kings attempted to chase down the target. Du Plessis’s innings was a true captain’s knock with seven fours and four sixes in over an hour and a half at the crease. Sadly for du Plessis none of the rest of the Kings batting card could stick with him long enough to truly worry the 2023 CPL champions.
At 105/7 the Kings looked like they were going to suffer a heavy defeat but an obdurate innings from Alzarri Joseph (25* off 21 balls) allowed du Plessis to have some solidity at the other end and he set about hauling his side to a more respectable total and making sure that their net run rate was not too badly damaged. Finishing on 172/7 and batting out all of their overs in the end, the 35 run loss marked an achievement of sorts for the Kings after it earlier looked like they would go down by a considerable amount more.
The Warriors reclaimed the top sport in the standings with the win, sitting on 14 points with a game in hand. They’ll take on the Trinbago Knight Riders tomorrow in the final fixture of the full competition to determine the final standings and playoff showdowns still to come.
