The Trinbago Knight Riders walloped Guyana Amazon Warriors in a clinical last-over thriller at the Queen’s Park Oval in match number 19 of the CPL 2024 season. The outcome helped the Knight Riders take the number two spot on the six-team points table.
The Guyana Amazon Warriors line-up was jolted early by Knight Riders spinners Akeal Hosein and Sunil Narine.
Both Hosein and Narine accounted for the exits of Kevin Sinclair and Shai Hope, respectively, inside the opening powerplay as the Warriors shaped a sluggish 42-2 by the end of the first six overs.
Waqar Salamkheil, meanwhile, dismissed Shimron Hetmyer and a well-set Tim Robinson (28-ball 34) in the space of just four deliveries to bag figures of 2-19 from his spell.
Dwayne Bravo got the better of Keemo Paul while Narine cleaned up Gudakesh Motie to pick his second wicket of the evening as the Warriors reached 76-7 in 12 overs.
At 76-7 and with eight overs remaining, senior man Romario Shepherd ‘shepherded’ the remainder of the Warriors’ innings by forming an unbroken 72-run partnership with Dwaine Pretorius (21* off 25).
Shepherd completely deprived the Knight Riders bowlers of another wicket by smacking a swift 51* from 24 balls with three boundaries and four sixes, thus taking the Warriors to a respectable 148-7 by the competition of the innings.
Chasing 149, Trinbago Knight Riders lost pinch-hitting opener Sunil Narine in just the second over of the innings to Moeen Ali.
Shaqkere Parris steadied the run-chase for a while by scoring a run-a-ball 29, but a double-strike from Nathan Sowter in a single over tilted the tide back in the Warriors’ favour at the halfway stage of the innings.
Fast bowlers Shamar Joseph and Keemo Paul also piled on the momentum by getting rid of perennial dangermen Kieron Pollard and Nicholas Pooran, respectively, as the Knight Riders fell to 89-6 in 15 overs.
Out-of-form lower-order bashers Tim David and Andre Russell forged an unbeaten match-winning stand for the seventh wicket to take the Knight Riders home with four balls to spare.
Russell, in particular, bludgeoned four sixes in his whirlwind 15-ball 36* while Australia’s hard-hitting radical David cautiously carved a swift 31* from his end.
Andre Russell, who was named Player of the Match, took charge by smashing three sixes off Nathan Sowter’s bowling.
This onslaught not only revived the Knight Riders’ chase but also shifted the momentum firmly in their favor, reducing the required runs to a manageable figure.
Speaking after the game, Russell revealed his mindset during the tense chase.
“The mindset was that I know I can hit sixes and that Tim David is a six-hitter as well. I told him that we had 24 balls, and we had to hit eight sixes,” Russell said.
The Knight Riders’ win helped them move to the second spot on the CPL 2024 points table, just behind a rampaging Barbados Royals unit.
Loosing captain Shai Hope said, “I don’t like to pinpoint the toss, but always good to chase here. We set ourselves a few runs short with the bat but commendable to take the game to the last over. (Shepherd’s batting) When he’s striking it well, he’s tough to stop. Without his innings, we’d have been way too short. He’s been out for a few games, hopefully he can bowl next time. (Bowling effort) We really fought well. Just crucial moments of the game. Don’t want to pinpoint fielding and bowling effort. We had a missed chance but that’s cricket. We need to fight like this. This is always a big, big, big match, always a great game coming to play here.”